Guilt and Innocence
by Ignite.the.Light
Summary: AU Story.  The boys are not in a band, are not friends, and are older, but their paths cross when a crime occurs.  This story is almost like a Crime novel/Mystery story.  Rated T for more mature themes that will come up later on in the story.  Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! This is my new story! It is a little different, in that the boys are not from Minnesota, are not childhood friends, and are not boys at all but are rather 27 and 28 years old! So this story is definitely a little different, but give it a chance! It is like a mystery or crime novel and I know I am going to have a lot of fun writing this, so I hope you have fun reading it! Please review and enjoy!**

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><p>Detective Logan Mitchell woke up to the sound of his third alarm clock going off. He got out of bed and walked across the room to turn it off, and then turned off his first, second, and fourth clocks as well. Logan needed these clocks in order to wake up. If he didn't have them, then he probably would oversleep every day of his life.<p>

Logan wasn't a heavy sleeper. Rather, he was a pretty light sleeper. However, his sleep-mind, or the time when he just woke up in the morning and was still a little hazy, was really lazy. When his alarm went off Logan would often turn it off and then go back to sleep.

So, as a joke that was actually meant to be taken seriously, his parents got him two alarm clocks, one to wake him up and the other to wake him up again. Logan then managed to survive with two alarm clocks and used them both until he started to turn off the second one too. Then he had a third one and now finally a fourth one just to ensure that he woke up in the morning. So far four clocks were all he needed, and he was always awake enough or annoyed enough to get up without oversleeping. He hoped he never needed anymore because four clocks with four different times displayed (none of them being correct of course) was annoying enough, let alone adding a fifth clock to the party.

Logan got changed into his exercise clothes and went for his usual jog around the block. Logan didn't exercise much, and this jog was actually less than half a mile in length and it was the only routine exercise that his did. But when he was younger and before he and his parents moved from Minnesota to Texas, he fell through the ice at a frozen lake and almost drowned. He, of course, was saved but not before his lungs were compromised enough for him to develop severe pneumonia, then a respiratory infection, and then a bunch of other things which eventually lead to him becoming asthmatic.

He didn't have severe asthma, and after years of ice hockey in high school, he seemed to have beaten it completely. His doctor informed him that while sports had helped to condition his lungs against asthma attacks, it still remained dormant in his system and in order to keep attacks at bay he should exercise a little here and there and maintain his good lung conditioning. Thus, he jogged less than half a mile a day and called it exercise.

Besides, Logan didn't necessarily need to exercise. He got enough of a workout while at his job. He was a police detective, after all, and running after criminals and arresting people were kind of in the job description. He also was naturally skinny so becoming the stereotypical "cop with doughnut gut" was, as of now, out of the question as well.

When Logan got back from his jog he made himself his famous chocolate chip waffle and peanut butter sandwich, with syrup as dipping sauce and milk. He had just jogged, after all, and he needed the sugar to replenish his energy sources.

He went through the rest of the mantra of his morning routine as quickly as he could. He had to get to work early today because he was supposed to be getting a new partner. He and his former partner Camille just hadn't worked out and she transferred out of the precinct and department. Now he was getting a new partner from Chicago.

Logan got to work an hour early. "Didn't mean to be this early," he muttered to himself under his breath. No one else was there except for a few graveyard shift workers trying to finish up reports and a custodial worker cleaning up the men's bathroom. There also was a guy sitting on one of the chairs in the main entry way to the precinct in a suit and tie.

"_Must be a new Internal Affairs guy_," Logan thought to himself as he took note of the guy's formal dress.

He sat at his desk and began to finish some paperwork that he had consistently ignored on his mental to-do list until his work was interrupted by his Sergeant entering the precinct.

"Mitchell!" Sergeant Rivers called across the room. "What are you doing here so early? Ah wait, you're getting a new partner, yeah? That's why you're here early, trying to make yourself look good for the new guy," Rivers said barely even taking a breath between sentences, let alone allowing Logan to answer his initial question.

"Yes, sir," Logan said quickly before Rivers could continue. "I am here to meet my new partner. Any idea when he's supposed to get in?"

"Yeah, he was due about three minutes ago, but he got here early like you," Rivers answered. "Mitchell, this is Detective James Diamond, your new partner," Rivers introduced Logan to the formally dressed guy he had seen earlier. "Diamond, this is Detective Logan Mitchell."

After a few more moments of polite small talk, Rivers left and Logan was left with his new partner. "Hey, uh…" Logan started trying to think of something to say, "Ummm…do you go by James or something else? Jim? Jimmy?"

Upon hearing these names, Logan's new partner flinched a bit and a shadow passed over his eyes for an extremely brief moment before it was replaced by neutrality. "I go by James," his partner said. "And I assume you go by Logan?" he asked in return.

Logan smiled, "Yeah, there aren't too many nicknames for my name, so I just go by Logan."

In order to avoid more awkward silence, Logan showed James to the empty desk that was directly across from his, that was now to be James' desk. He then showed James around the precinct and introduced him to a few other detectives and officers until it was time for lunch.

Logan usually brought a lunch to work, but today was an exception and he brought his new partner to a diner that was down the street from the precinct. After they ordered their food, Logan decided that now was the appropriate time to learn more about the guy who was supposed to be watching his back whenever they went out on the streets.

"So, where are you from?" Logan asked.

"Originally Los Angeles," James answered. "But I've lived in a couple places around California. Then I moved to Chicago about two years ago and now I'm here."

"So what made you come to Maryland?" Logan asked, curious as to what could cause someone to leave the beautiful sun and beaches of California for less glamorous places like Chicago and Baltimore.

"Uh, well," James began, obviously struggling to find the right words to answer. "I guess I just needed a change of environment. What about you?" James asked, quickly changing the subject's spotlight from him to Logan.

Logan took note of James' hesitation to answer his questions directly and clearly, but didn't press the issue. James had the right to keep some things in his life private, and he didn't blame him for not wanting to tell him all about his life after only knowing him for a few hours.

"I lived in Minnesota when I was younger," Logan answered simply. "Then my family moved to Texas and I lived there most of my childhood and teenage years. Then I went to college here in Baltimore, found that it wasn't really my thing and became a police officer. I made my way through the ranks and, at the age of 25, became the youngest homicide detective that this precinct has seen since the early 1980s."

James nodded. "Wow, congratulations," he said.

"When did you become a detective?" Logan asked, desperately trying to think of things to say so as to avoid any awkward silences with his new partner.

"About a month ago," James answered, averting his eyes as if embarrassed by the fact he was so new to the trade.

"Well, you have to start somewhere," Logan said kindly and smiled at James.

James smiled back and said, "So how old are you, by the way?"

"I'm 28," Logan answered. "And you?"

"27," James responded.

Logan laughed a bit, "Wow, we're two veterans to police work I guess, with all of our experience."

James laughed in return and before he could say anything else, the waitress brought their two cheeseburgers over. As he reached for the ketchup, he saw Logan grab it and pour an ungodly amount of the red condiment on his burger and on the side of his plate. He looked at Logan curiously, waiting for an explanation.

Logan, upon seeing James' questioning stare, laughed. "I like ketchup," he said simply and shrugged.

James took the bottle of ketchup and poured the same amount, if not more, on his burger and plate as well. "So do I," he said smiling.

And just like that, what was an awkward first meeting for two new partners became the first meeting of two new friends. James and Logan bonded over their fierce love of ketchup along with other strange and quirky elements of their personalities. After finding that they had a lot in common, Logan realized that maybe there was such a thing as a good partner. Not everyone was like Camille.

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><p><strong>Did you like it? Do you want to read more? Do you want to know where Kendall and Carlos are? Well I hope you answered "yes!" to these questions. I know it is a little slow, but eventually there will be some action and drama, so please stick with me! Also, let me know if you have any questions or comments by reviewing. I would love to hear what you all think of this story so far! Thanks for reading!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**First of all, I would like to thank all of you for reading my first chapter, especially Scarlet Amber and tank602, who were my first (and only) reviews! And to clear up a bit of confusion that may or may not exist regarding this story: Kendall, Carlos, James, and Logan (1) are not in a band, (2) are not childhood friends, (3) are 27 or 28 years old, and (4) are not it love, nor will they fall in love. In other words, they may be a little OOC, but I am trying my best to make sure they are not, and this is NOT A SLASH STORY.**

**Once again, thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoy the second chapter! Please review!**

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><p>After lunch, Logan and James clicked. They understood each other and held similar beliefs with various things, such as their love for ice hockey and ketchup. At the end of the day when it was time to go home, Logan decided that it was his duty to give his new partner some fashion advice.<p>

"Hey, James," Logan said as they both grabbed their things to go home that evening. When James turned around Logan continued. "You know you don't have to wear a suit to work. You're a bit overdressed," Logan said smiling, and raised his eyebrows at James' formal suit and tie as compared to his own personal dress pants and collared shift that didn't contain a tie and wasn't even tucked in.

James looked down at his clothing choice and glanced at Logan's before smiling and said, "Hey, I want to look nice. It's your choice to wear clothes that make you look like a college student." With that, James turned and left the precinct. Logan shook his head and laughed a little. Any doubts he had about James Diamond being his new partner were gone. After only one day, Logan knew that he and James were going to be great partners and that their partnership was only going to blossom into a beautiful friendship.

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><p><em>Three Months Later<em>

"Hey, Logan, what's with the alarm clocks?" James asked as he meandered through Logan's apartment while Logan ran around his room trying to get ready for work. James had woken him up at 8:00 in the morning on his day off to tell him that they found a dead body.

"I told you," Logan said, a little breathlessly as he ran from the bathroom to the closet to the hallway to the closet as quickly as he could, pulling on a sock while trying to run a comb through his hair and find a clean shirt all at the same time. "I don't wake up in the morning right away and I need a few reminders that I have a life other than sleeping."

"Huh," James responded as he studied the times the clocks displayed and compared them to his own watch. "Why are they all the wrong time?"

"I think the real question is why do we commit ourselves to only one time. They're just numbers after all. Should we really say that we are living at one time and there are no exceptions?"

"Yes," James answered simply. "And according to the correct time that none of these clocks are even close to, we need to be at the crime scene now." James turned to the mirror the hung over Logan's bureau, straightening his tie and fixing his hair.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Logan asked while running out the door of his bedroom holding his shoes and toothbrush. "We're late, James, and all you're doing is standing around and feeding your vanity in your ridiculous suit. We have a crime scene to get to!"

And with that, Logan finished brushing his teeth at the kitchen sink, grabbed a granola bar, and was out the door before James. James shook his head and laughed at the morning antics that his usually more reserved friend just performed. But then again, Logan wasn't too much of a morning person, and he usually was like a whole different person when he just woke up as compared to his usual personality.

As he made sure Logan's door was locked, he heard his car honking outside. "Like I wasn't just waiting for him for half an hour," James muttered as he made his way to his car. When both Logan and James were ready and in the car, James drove out of Logan's apartment complex's parking lot and started to drive to their crime scene.

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><p>It was a gruesome sight. A tan and brunette girl in her mid- to late twenties named Jennifer had been beaten to death in her own apartment. Her two best friends sat on the couch, just feet away from their friend's body, trying to explain to Logan where they had been the night before through their hysterical tears.<p>

"We were at a friend's club," the blonde friend explained tearfully, holding desperately tight to her brunette friend's arm.

"She was supposed to come," the brunette girl responded next. "But she was feeling a little sick and decided that she would rather stay home. We stayed out later than expected, partied a little too hard and decided it wasn't safe for us to drive back here. So we stayed at our friend who owns the club's condo for the night, came back here, and…and we found her… like that…" the girl said sadly.

"Do you have any idea who would do this to your friend?" James asked from where the dead girl lay while taking photographs of the crime scene.

The two girls looked at each other. "Well…" the blonde girl started unsurely. "There is this guy. He was always following her around. He wanted to date her, he wanted to date all of us at one point but we always turned him down but Jennifer was always a little nicer to him. She didn't throw things at him or call him names or play him like we did from time to time, but she didn't like him and he knew that. He just really liked her and wouldn't leave her alone. No matter how many times we told him to leave us alone, he just always came back."

The other girl began to talk, "It was annoying at first, but it was never scary until about a week ago. He came here after Jennifer broke up with her boyfriend and asked her out. When she said no he forced himself into the apartment and grabbed her arms hard enough to leave bruises."

"Did you call the police?" Logan interrupted upon hearing of this violent encounter.

The girls exchanged glances. "No," the brunette answered reluctantly. "We didn't actually see it, but when we came here Jennifer was crying and we asked her what happened and she told us that this guy did it."

"What's his name?" Logan asked.

"Carlos Garcia," the girls answered at the same time.

"And do you have any way to contact Carlos? An address, a phone number, anything, Ms….uh, I'm sorry what are your names again?"

"You can call us Jennifer," the blonde answered. "And yes we have his cell phone number—"

"Wait, you're both named Jennifer? And so is she?" Logan asked, indicating the dead girl that James was still taking photos of.

"Yes," the brunette answered while the blonde was writing down Carlos Garcia's information. "We were the three Jennifers. Now we're only two…" Her voice died out as she began to cry again.

James looked up from his work and with a sympathetic look on his face he said, "It's okay, Jennifer. We'll find out what happened last night to your friend. Everything will be okay."

They finished up their work in the apartment, gave their contact information to the two Jennifers in case they thought of anything else relevant, and left the crime scene in the capable hands of the Medical Examiner and CSIs.

"Now to find Carlos Garcia," Logan said to James as they got into James' car. With the Jennifers' comments and background information regarding the violent behavior of Carlos Garcia, he seemed like a pretty strong suspect. At this point in the investigation, it seemed like this case was going to be open and shut. Little did they know, this was only the start.

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><p><strong>This was a little short, but I am trying to write as long of chapters as I can, and I will update as quickly as I can. Please review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi, everyone who is still reading this story! I hope you enjoy this next chapter. I am basically going to try to update everyday so keep an eye out for more chapters! And I would like to throw out a special thanks to tank602 who is the only one who reviewed last chapter. Please keep reviewing, tank602! Hahaha :) And to all of you out there who haven't reviewed, I hope you like this chapter and review! :)**

**Now **

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><p>"What do you think?" James asked his more veteran of a partner.<p>

"About what?" Logan asked.

"About the case. Do you think this Garcia guy could have done it? That it is this easy?" James asked.

Logan shook his head and shrugged. "I'm not sure. I mean we obviously need more evidence and we need to talk to Garcia before we make any rash judgments, but the two Jennifers seem to think that he is guilty."

James nodded and continued to drive. This was his first real murder case. The other homicide cases that he and Logan had come across since he came to Baltimore were quick and easy, requiring no investigation at all. There was a drug addict who injected too much heroin into her boyfriend which killed him, and she pled guilty. Then there was the woman who killed her husband out of fear of domestic abuse. And there was another case that involved some people in Baltimore which was taken away from them by the FBI and U.S. Marshals…who knew what that was about. But this case was the first death that he and Logan had to investigate, had to track down all of the clues and find out who killed her. James was nervous and anxious, and maybe even a little excited. After all, he was finally getting a chance to do his job, to investigate.

James' inner musings were cut short when he pulled up to the apartment address that the Jennifers had given him and Logan, saying it was Carlos Garcia's place. The complex was in a shadier part of Baltimore, and the lot in front of the building that was supposed to hold grass was filled with trash and junk like car parts and broken toys. He and Logan walked into the building only to find that the elevator was broken, forcing them to walk up six flights of stairs to room 602.

The stairs were cluttered with more mess and graffiti. There was an odd odor that Logan and James chose not to think about and they walked as quickly as they could up the stairs to escape it all. However, when they arrived at the sixth floor and walked out of the stairwell, the environment did not improve much. The smell actually was stronger and worse than it had been in the stairwell and there were flies and gnats and even more trash littering the hallway.

"This has to be a fire code violation," Logan muttered as he stepped over an empty box. Well, at least they assumed it was empty until it suddenly moved. After that, James and Logan quickly made their way to the other end of the hallway to Carlos Garcia's apartment. And what they saw was not expected.

Instead of the usual graffiti and drawings that defaced all of the other doors in the hallway, door 602 was spotless. The area in front of the door was free of trash and litter, and was clean. From the look of it, the front area in front of the door may even have been…_vacuumed_? Logan and James did not have time to muse about this cleanliness, however, because the door was quickly opened by a young Hispanic man.

"Hi…uh, can I help you?" the man asked confused, wondering why two random people were just standing outside of his door.

"Yes," Logan said, pulling out his detective's badge. "I'm Detective Logan Mitchell and this is my partner, Detective James Diamond. We're with the Baltimore police department. Could we come in to ask you a few questions?"

"Yeah, sure," Carlos said, opening the door wider so that both detectives could enter. What James Diamond saw was a bit shocking. Once again, instead of the usual mess that the apartment complex seemed to connote, Carlos Garcia's apartment was spotless. Sunlight streamed in gracefully from two clean windows, and everything in the apartment had a place. In shocked James to see that something so nice and neat could be located in the middle of such chaos. However, the most prominent thing that James saw when he entered the apartment was a black eye on Carlos Garcia's face.

"What happened to your eye," James asked as casually as he could.

"What? Oh, this?" Carlos laughed. "I'm a bit accident prone, always falling and tripping over things. I got this by opening my kitchen cabinet into my face."

James nodded, but couldn't help but feel a wave of suspicion. The victim had show signs of bruising, indicating that a fight had occurred. It was completely plausible to think that maybe she fought back, and that black eye was the result of her troubles.

Logan began to question Carlos. "Mr. Garcia, where were you between 10:00PM yesterday and 10:00AM today?" Logan asked, referencing the time when Jennifer was alone in her apartment and killed. They would know a more accurate time of death after they received the Medical Examiner's report.

Carlos thought for a minute. "I was asleep," he said shrugging. I had an early morning yesterday because a friend called me and I was tired."

James' suspicions grew as he heard Carlos giving more information than was necessary. He wasn't a psychologist, but he knew that giving too detailed of an answer to a simple question could be an indication of something to hide.

"What is all of this about, anyway?" Carlos asked, mildly confused.

Logan and James exchanged glances before Logan said, "Sometime yesterday evening or early this morning, Jennifer Moroe was killed in her apartment. Her friends said that you—"

"What?" Carlos interrupted Logan with a shocked statement and expression. "Jennifer is…she's dead?"

At this, James' suspicions fell. He was definitely _not_ expecting that kind of reaction from a killer.

"Yes," Logan continued. I am sorry for your loss. Her friends gave us your information, saying that you had an interest in Jennifer. We just wanted to ask—"

"Wait, I'm not a suspect, am I?" Carlos interrupted Logan again, the shock on his face immediately being replaced by fear and hysteria. "I didn't kill her, I would never kill her! You have to believe me, I didn't do anything!"

Once again James' suspicions rose. _Who would so frantically try to convince us that he wasn't guilty before we even said he was a suspect?_

"Calm down, Mr. Garcia," James said. "We just wanted to ask you a few questions. We don't have any suspects yet; we're just trying to figure out what happened."

James' words seemed to work as Carlos visibly relaxed. His shoulders drooped and he dropped into a chair, putting his head in his hands. "Are you sure she's dead?" Carlos asked softly.

"We're sorry," Logan said. "I understand that this is a shock, and we're sorry to throw this at you without any warning. Detective Diamond and I will be in touch if we have any further questions. Thank you for your time and, again, we're sorry for your loss."

With that, Logan and James left the impeccably clean apartment and once again entered the world of trash-filled hallways and questionable stains. When they got to James' car, they began to drive to the precinct to see if the Medical Examiner or CSIs had any information for them.

"What do you think?" Logan asked James. "You think maybe he did it?"

James thought for a few moments before answering. "I don't know," he said. "From what the victim's friends told us Carlos Garcia seems like an obsessed stalker. But going to that apartment, and seeing how nice it was compared to everywhere else, and seeing how shocked he was that she was dead…I don't know. What about you?"

"I'm not sure either, to be honest. I thought the black eye was a little weird, but maybe he really is just accident prone. Let's go back to the crime scene. Maybe the apartment complex has security footage we can look at."

James nodded, "Why didn't we think of that sooner?"

Logan shrugged, "Well we needed to make sure Garcia didn't try to leave before we contacted him so maybe it just slipped our minds."

James accepted Logan's excuse and drove to the apartment complex in silence, both detectives mentally considering Carlos Garcia as a suspect.

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><p><strong>Hope you liked meeting Carlos, and to all of you waiting for Kendall, he will appear somewhat soon. And also some other familiar faces will be coming in next chapter, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading and please review!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**After such a prompt and super kind review from tank602, I decided to post Chapter 4 today instead of tomorrow! It is also a pretty short chapter so I would feel bad if I only gave you guys this tomorrow. So I hope you enjoy and please review!**

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><p>After James and Logan arrived at the victim's apartment, they acquired the security footage of the parking lot and a street cam that was meant to stop people who ran red lights. Before watching the tapes, however, they first went to the Medical Examiner to see what she had.<p>

"Hey, Katie," Logan greeted the ME's assistant before turning to the Medical Examiner himself. "What do you have on Jennifer Moroe, Dr. Bitters?"

"Hello, Detectives," the somewhat creepy Medical Examiner greeted them. "Jennifer Moroe died from blunt force trauma to the head sometime between 5:00 and 7:00 this morning. However, before her death she was beaten pretty severely, acquiring deep bruising and lacerations to various part of her face and head.

"She also has bruising to her upper arms, but how someone could be bruised like that is above my pay grade," Dr. Bitters chuckled at his joke that no one else found humor in.

"Or the bruising could be an indication of someone grabbing her forcefully," Katie said, rolling her eyes at Dr. Bitters' apparent stupidity.

Logan nodded. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Katie said before Dr. Bitters could say anything else. "There seemed to be some epithelial tissue under her fingernails. We sent it to the forensics lab to see if they could find a DNA match."

"Katie, I don't think the Detectives care if some bits of Kleenex were found underneath the victim's fingernails," Dr. Bitters said, rolling his eyes at Katie.

"_Epithelial_ tissue, not tissues," Katie said, the frustration at her superior's inferior intellect clearly evident. "That means _skin_."

Dr. Bitters nodded, trying to keep his embarrassment at bay. "I knew that," he muttered.

James and Logan, clearly amused, thanked Katie and Dr. Bitters for their help and made their way to the forensic lab.

"Hey, Microscope Dude," James greeted the forensic scientist. Microscope Dude had a real name, but nobody knew it because he preferred to be called Microscope Dude because "Dude, microscopes are so awesome, you know?"

"Hey, James and Logan! What's up?"

"Katie Knight, Dr. Bitters' assistant, told us she sent some epithelials to you. Any chance you found a DNA match?" Logan asked.

"Unfortunately no, dudes. The epithelials didn't match any DNA we have in the database. But if you get some DNA from suspects or whatever, my machines are locked and loaded for some serious testing!"

James and Logan laughed and said goodbye to the crazy scientist. They left the lab and went back to their desks to watch the security footage from the victim's apartment.

"So Dr. Bitters said she died between 5 and 7AM, so let's just look at the footage of people leaving the parking lot between 5:00 and 8:00, just in case it took awhile for the killer to leave after he or she killed Jennifer," Logan suggested. James agreed and prepared a notepad to write down all of the license plate numbers and models of cars that they saw exiting the parking lot. The first car, a beat-up Honda Accord, left the parking lot around 5:16AM, and the next car didn't leave until 6:42AM.

"I guess there isn't much activity this early in the morning," James noted as they finished watching the tape, only finding three cars to leave the parking lot before 8:00AM.

Logan scoffed. "Yeah, I can't say I blame them though. Who would want to wake up that early just to get to work?"

James raised an eyebrow at Logan. "I suppose you mean who, besides us, would want to leave that early in the morning for work," he said, referencing the fact that both he and Logan usually got to work around 7:00AM.

"Oh, this isn't work for me, James, this is fun!" Logan said, laughing. "All right, let's run those license plate numbers and see what we get."

Two of the numbers belonged to people who lived in the apartment complex. Upon calling them, Logan and James found out that they were leaving for work and did not seem to know who Jennifer Moroe was, let alone know that she had been murdered. Logan was looking into more information regarding these two people to ensure that they could be crossed off the suspects list.

"Did you find a match for the car that left at 5:16 yet?" Logan asked James.

"Yeah, we just got a match. The car belongs to…oh." Logan looked up from his work.

"Who does it belong to?" Logan asked.

James looked up at Logan. "Carlos Garcia."

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><p><strong>Hope you liked the Katie and Mr. Bitters (or should I say Dr. Bitter?) interaction. I know I did :) Please review and keep your eyes open for Chapter 5 tomorrow!<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, everyone! Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews! I really appreciate that you are all being so patient with me. As I said before, this story is a little slow in the beginning, but soon enough (aka next chapter) there will be action! Also, to all of you mentioning other crime shows-I watch those shows too! NCIS is one of my favorite shows and I also like a show called Blue Bloods. Its AWESOME. Anyway, this is not Random Facts day (that's tomorrow...hahah just kidding...or am I?) so on with the chapter!**

**I hope you enjoy Chapter 5 even though it is a little short, and please review!**

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><p>Logan leaned back in his seat. "Huh. I guess we probably should have seen that one coming," he said.<p>

James nodded, but frowned. "I guess it makes sense but…man, if it makes so much sense why didn't we see it coming? Something just doesn't feel right about this."

Logan didn't agree with James out loud, but inside he felt the same way. "Well let's go pay Mr. Carlos Garcia another visit. We need a DNA sample from him for Microscope Dude anyway, so we may as well go to question him about this as well."

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><p>When Carlos heard the knocks on his door, he probably should have realized that it was the two detectives that had been there earlier. After all, he had lied to them about where he was last night. But he needed to lie. He had to protect himself.<p>

"Detectives," Carlos said and opened the door. "Come in, please."

He led them to a small sitting room where Logan and James sat on a threadbare couch while Carlos sat on the only ragged chair in the room.

"What can I help you with? Did you find anything else out about who may have killed Jennifer?" Carlos asked.

"Well, we're going over some things now, but we just came by to ask you a few more questions," Logan said.

"First," James began, "why did you lie to us about where you were from 10:00PM yesterday to 10:00AM this morning?"

Carlos was a little taken aback by James' straight-to-the-point question, but attempted to maintain his composure. He thought for a moment about lying again, but upon looking at Logan's "you can't lie to me" face and James' "don't even think about wasting any more of my time" face, he realized lying was futile, and telling the truth was the only option.

"Jennifer…I loved Jennifer," Carlos began. "I may like a bunch of girls, but Jennifer was different. While others laughed at my attempts at asking them out or played tricks or whatever, she never did any of that. And even though I may have tried to take things a little too far by asking her out all of the time, I only ever wanted what was best for her. Even though it broke my heart to see her dating other guys, I never was angry or jealous or possessive because she was happy with these other guys. And if and when they broke her heart, I was always there to help her feel better."

"Help her feel better?" Logan asked dubiously. "What do you mean by that? Jennifer's friends said that you annoyed and bothered her, yet she asked for your help when she broke up with her boyfriends?"

"It wasn't like that," Carlos tried to explain. "Sure, Jennifer didn't like me the way I liked her, but she didn't hate me as much as the other Jennifers did. She may have acted the same way towards me as they did, but she never hated me."

"So you're saying that Jennifer liked you but didn't want to date you because of what her friends would think of her?" James asked, not really believing Carlos' explanation.

Carlos shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, kind of. I mean she liked me in that she didn't hate me, but I never thought she liked me like I liked her. I never thought she _liked_ me liked me, you know? Well, that was until yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?" Logan asked, excited that they were finally getting somewhere.

"She called me at around 11:00. She was dating this guy who was in a relationship with this other girl, but he said that he was going to break up with this other girl for her. Well she found out that he actually just wanted to date both of them and when she confronted him about it he said that he wasn't going to break up with the other girl. So she broke up with him and he got all mad at her and kept calling her apartment. She was scared so she called me. She asked me to come over and just stay with her until the morning. So I went over, stayed until 5:00ish and went home." Carlos was quiet for a minute before he said, "I wonder what would have happened if I stayed longer. Maybe she wouldn't be dead."

Logan and James looked at each other and silently agreed to wait a few moments for Carlos to compose himself before asking more questions. James was thinking the case over until he was pulled from his thoughts after seeing Carlos rubbing his arm absent-mindedly. The sleeve on Carlos' shirt rolled up a bit and James caught sight of four freshly scabbed cuts. Four cuts that looked like they had been caused by a human's fingernails.

"Mr. Garcia, we would like to take some of your DNA," James said abruptly. He knew that those four cuts were caused by Jennifer. He knew that it was Carlos' epithelial tissue under her fingernails. Carlos Garcia seemed to be a stronger and stronger suspect.

Logan glanced over at James and let his partner roll with it. Sure, he was the more veteran detective, but James was a great detective as well. He had good instincts and if he suddenly blurted out a question to their number one suspect, it had to be for good reason. Also, he had seen the scratch marks on Carlos' arm as well, and he wasn't about to leave this apartment without some of Carlos' DNA to compare to the tissue found underneath Jennifer's fingernails.

"My DNA?" Carlos asked and he immediately pulled at his sleeve in attempt to cover the four scratches.

"_That's not suspicious at all_," James thought to himself.

"Yes, your DNA," Logan chimed in, knowing that they couldn't force Carlos to give them a sample of his DNA, and thus they might have to make up a white lie. "We found some saliva on Jennifer's body and we just want to compare your DNA to it so that we can eliminate you as a suspect."

Upon hearing that his DNA would be tested against saliva instead of other purposes, Carlos visibly relaxed and willingly let James collect a few DNA samples.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Garcia. We'll call you if we have any more questions," Logan said and he and James left the neat apartment.

"Saliva?" James asked, smiling a little at Logan's quick thinking.

"Hey, I got the job done, did I not? Now to bring this to Microscope Dude to see if it is Carlos Garcia's DNA underneath Jennifer's fingernails."

"You know, we never asked him why he lied to begin with," James mentioned a little reluctantly, obviously curious as to what could cause someone to lie to two detectives.

Logan shrugged. "Oh well," he said. "If this DNA matches the epithelials then we can bring Garcia in for questioning and ask him about it then."

"Do you think he's guilty?" James asked.

"I think that this early in the case we shouldn't be making rash judgments. But if it is Carlos' DNA under the victim's fingernails…" Logan shook his head and looked at James. "Then I don't think Carlos is as innocent as he appears."

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><p><strong>Ooooo, did Carlos kill Jennifer? I know, but I'm not telling you. :) I hope you liked this chapter! If I get enough reviews (aka 5 reviews) for this chapter, I will put up Chapter 5 today instead of tomorrow! Have a nice day!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, loyal readers! I hope that you enjoy the next addition of "Guilt and Innocence." As I hinted to before, this chapter contains some action, so I hope you're ready! And I would also like to thank everyone who reviewed. Unfortunately I did not receive five reviews for last chapter so I did not update early, but that's all right. :) The chapter is here today! So anyway, on with the story and I hope you enjoy it!**

**Have a lovely day!**

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><p>James and Logan brought the DNA samples to Microscope Dude and went home for the night. By the next morning, Microscope Dude informed them that Carlos Garcia was, indeed, the man that Jennifer Moroe had scratched before she died. They got a warrant to arrest Carlos under the grounds that he had lied to the police about where he had been the nightmorning Jennifer was killed, he was at Jennifer's apartment the night/morning she was killed, the suspicious and somewhat stalker-ish behavior he displayed towards Jennifer before she was killed, he had a black eye and scratches that could have been from Jennifer fighting back before he killed her, and his DNA was under her fingernails.

Logan and James went back to the disgusting apartment complex, went to Carlos' apartment, and arrested him.

"What? Why are you arresting me? I didn't do anything, please! You have to believe me, I didn't do anything!" Carlos was yelling and struggling as James walked him to the stairwell.

"Mr. Garcia, we are going to ask you to calm down. If you do not then we can charge you with resisting arrest and that will just get you into more trouble," Logan said, noting how much trouble James was having keeping Carlos steady as they walked down the six flights of stairs.

Carlos stopped struggling, but he turned towards Logan with tears in his eyes and streaming down his face. "I loved her," he said quietly. "I loved her and I would never hurt her. Please, you have to believe me."

Logan didn't know what to think. All of the evidence pointed to Carlos Garcia. There wasn't even any other evidence that pointed elsewhere; he was their only suspect with incriminating evidence against him. "_So why don't I feel right_?" he asked himself as he watched James help the patrol officers put Carlos into the back of a police car to go to the precinct for booking.

James and he went to James' car and began to follow the police car that held Carlos.

"What's wrong?" James asked, upon noticing Logan's silence.

"I don't know, he just doesn't seem like the type, you know?" Logan said, sharing his uncertainty with James. "And he really may have loved her, or at least he seems to have loved her. Why would he kill someone he loved?"

James shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he just got tired of waiting around while she dated a bunch of jerks. He found out she broke up with her boyfriend, he thinks this is his chance, she turns him down, and he just cracks."

Silence filled the car as the two detectives contemplated James' theories. "Yeah, but—" Logan began, but his words were interrupted when a car came out of nowhere and crashed into the police car in front of them that held Carlos Garcia and two police officers. James tried to avoid the car but everything happened too quickly. He swerved and they crashed into a streetlight. James hit his head on the steering wheel and Logan was slammed into the window. Then, for both detectives, everything went black.

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><p>Logan first realized that his head hurt, and then he realized his body hurt, and then he realized he was covered in glass. It took a few more moments after these realizations to remember what happened, but when he did, he quickly jumped out of the car with his gun and looked towards the broken mass that was once a police car. He saw two masked men, both twice the size of him, helping Carlos out of the car and unlocking his handcuffs.<p>

"Stop!" Logan shouted and held his gun in front of him, pointed at the three men who were trying to escape. "Baltimore PD, put your hands where I can see them!"

Carlos turned around and Logan could see wide eyes. Before he knew it, the other two men pulled out guns of their own and started to shooting at Logan. He dove behind the crashed police car, but was pinned there as long as the men kept firing.

"Run, Carlos! Get out of here!" the men yelled. They were helping Carlos escape. Carlos was running away from arrest and was abandoning him here with two men with guns. Carlos may as well have killed Logan himself.

The men kept firing even though none of their bullets had hit Logan yet. The spot where he had dove for cover was keeping him well protected for now, but he heard the two men moving closer. He knew he had to think quickly if he wanted to make it out of this alive, but no matter what he did he couldn't think of anything. He was stuck, pinned in this spot. And in this spot these two men were going to kill him.

"Baltimore PD!" he heard, and more shots were fired. But this time, the bullets weren't aimed at him, but rather another person with a bloody head standing by a car that had crashed into a streetlight.

"Logan, run!" James yelled between shots.

Logan didn't need to be told twice. James was distracting the two men, forcing them to find cover as well, giving Logan the opportunity to get to a place with more protection.

He jumped up and ran behind the car and sought cover next to James.

"You all right?" James asked, a little breathlessly as he glanced down at his partner.

Logan took a deep breath and nodded, "Yeah."

"Geez, how much ammo do these guys have?" James muttered as he sent a few more shots towards the men. Suddenly another car came upon the scene, blocking James and Logan from the two men.

"What the…" Logan said, thinking that some pedestrian had just gotten in the middle of a firefight.

However, the car stopped and the two men ran in. Just as quickly as the car had come, it peeled away, other passengers in the car shooting at Logan and James so that they couldn't follow.

The car was a black SUV and didn't have a license plate. In other words, there was no way to know who had just picked up the two men who helped Carlos Garcia escape police custody.

"What just happened?" James asked, his hand going up to the cut on his head.

"Don't touch it, your hands are dirty and that cut could get infected," Logan said, stopping James.

"I guess you shouldn't touch the cuts on your face either," James said.

Logan looked at himself in the broken mirror that was once attached to James' car and saw that he had a deep gash near his hairline and another on top of his eyebrow. He then gave the mirror to James, who saw that he was bleeding from a cut on the top of his head where he had hit the steering wheel, and his lower lip was a little swollen.

"You must have bit it when we crashed," Logan said, referring to James' lip.

James nodded and they made their way over to the police car, where the two officers were just shaking unconsciousness from their bodies.

"What happened?" one of the officers asked.

"Well it looks like Carlos Garcia had a few friends who were willing to help him escape from police custody," James said angrily.

"How did anyone know that he was being arrested though?" the other officer asked. "We didn't tell any media sources yet and we just arrested him."

"Well he was yelling pretty loudly when he left his apartment," Logan said. "Anyone could have heard that he was being arrested and ran to go stop us. He probably was so loud to let his friends know what was happening."

The two officers called in what happened and an ambulance came. Both officers were fine, with a few bruises, but both James and Logan needed stitches on their cuts. On their way to the hospital, James and Logan thought over how a guy like Carlos Garcia was such a good actor that he tricked both of them into thinking that he may not be guilty.

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><p><strong>Well, how did you like the action? Don't worry, there is more to come! I have yet to write that action, but I essentially know it in my head. If you have any preferences as to who gets injured or has a lot of action (I hope that didn't sound too weird), review to tell me and I will do my best to fit that in. And also, Kendall will come into the story soon! And by soon I mean in two chapters (aka Chapter 8). So to all the Kendall lovers out there, he's coming and he will be quite involved in the story! So if you have any suggestions, preferences, or comments, please review. If you don't have any suggestions, preferences, or comments, please review anyway!<strong>

**Hope you liked this chapter and have a lovely day!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! I hope that you enjoy this next chapter. It is almost twice as long as some of the other chapters! Please review!**

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><p>After they got back from the hospital, James and Logan went back to the precinct to tell Sergeant Rivers what happened. Their boss took it better than expected.<p>

"You boys okay?" he asked upon seeing the bandages covering James' and Logan's stitches.

"We'll be fine when we find Carlos Garcia," James said, the frustration that he felt over the fact that Carlos had escaped clearly showing.

"Do you have any leads or sightings on where he could have gone?" Logan asked, smothering his own anger and frustration over Carlos Garcia.

Sergeant Rivers nodded. "We got out a BOLO on Carlos Garcia as soon as the officers called in what happened. Sorry about your car, by the way, James. You can use one of ours until you get a new one. Anyway, the BOLO got a hit by Flower Street. We just sent two officers over there to see if it's him."

James nodded in acknowledgment of River's offer to use one of the department's cars and said, "We're going to head over to Flower Street."

Logan agreed. "We know what he looks like so we may as well help the other officers."

Rivers agreed and wished them luck. James and Logan went down to the precinct garage and took one of the department's cars and were off to Flower Street.

"So what happened?" James asked. "I remember driving and then a car crashed into the police car and I tried to dodge it but we crashed. Then I woke up to hear a bunch of shots being fired and I saw you getting shot at by two huge masked guys. What happened before that?"

"I blacked out after crashing too," Logan answered. "I woke up and remembered what happened to I got out of the car as quickly as I could and went to the police car only to see two guys helping Carlos out of the car and unlocking his handcuffs. When I said 'Baltimore PD' they told Carlos to run and started shooting at me. They had me pinned and then you distracted them enough for me to get to you and you know the rest. Thanks, by the way."

"No problem," James said quietly. "So they just helped him escape? Just like that?"

Logan nodded. "Yeah," he said, shaking his head at the memory. "They just helped him out of the car. They even called him Carlos. They definitely knew him."

"Great," James muttered. "Let's hope we find him soon before he can run away and hurt more people."

When Logan and James got to Flower Street, they saw a lot of people walking and barely anyone driving in cars.

"Well, do you want to take a walk?" James asked lightly, knowing that by walking they would be less conspicuous.

Logan and James got out of their car and started walking. They walked up and down Flower Street, and were about to give up when suddenly the door to a small boutique opened in front of them and there, wearing new and freshly bought clothes, was Carlos Garcia. They unfortunately did not have the element of surprise because immediately after exiting the store, Carlos saw them and began to run.

"Run after him and I'll try to cut him off!" Logan yelled to James. Even though James a fast runner and was taller and had longer legs than Logan, Logan was faster. James sprinted after Carlos, but Carlos kept knocking things over and putting things in the way to impede James' path. Carlos then ran out of things to push over and James almost caught him, when all of a sudden Logan came flying out of nowhere and tackled Carlos to the ground.

The officers who had been at Flower Street earlier helped Logan handcuff Carlos and then put him in their police car.

"Watch out for cars trying to stop you from getting to the precinct," James warned the officers. He then looked at Carlos Garcia, who was sitting in the backseat with his face down. "I wonder what your friends are going to say when they find out that an hour after they freed you, you were arrested again," he said to the prisoner. The police car drove away and James turned around to see Logan bent over with his hands on his knees, wheezing.

"Whoa, buddy, you okay?" he asked concerned. "Where's your inhaler?"

Logan shook his head and took a deep breath. "No, I'm good," he said. "Just a little winded."

"You sure?" James asked, frowning.

Logan took another deep breath, this breath almost completely absent of wheezing. "Yeah, I'm good. No, actually I'm great. We got him," he said, smiling at James. And with that, both detectives made their way back to their car and headed back to the precinct to finally question Carlos Garcia.

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><p>"He doesn't want a lawyer," Sergeant Rivers told James and Logan when they returned from Flower Street. "And good job, boys. I heard that you had a pretty good tackle, by the way, Mitchell. What did you do, play football in high school?"<p>

Logan laughed. "Ice hockey," he said smiling.

Sergeant Rivers laughed, "Even better! I'm surprised you didn't knock out a tooth though!"

And with that, Logan and James made their way to the interrogation room where Carlos Garcia was placed and walked in.

"So I heard you don't want a lawyer," James said as he walked into the room.

"Only guilty people need lawyers," Carlos said quietly, not looking up from the table in front of him.

"Yeah, and only guilty people run away from the police who arrested them," James countered.

Carlos was silent.

"So what, you yelled that you were being arrested and your friends came to free you? Is that what happened?" Logan asked.

Carlos still didn't say anything.

"I'll take that as a yes," Logan muttered in response to Carlos' refusal to answer.

Suddenly there was a bang as Carlos slammed his hands on the table in front of him. "I didn't tell my friends to help me escape," he said with tears in his eyes. "I didn't tell anyone to help me."

"So these random people find out you were arrested and say 'Hey, let's go help that random guy escape from the police and try to kill the detectives who arrested him if they get in the way. That should be fun'?" James asked sarcastically.

"And then when these random people show up, knowing your name, and help you to escape, you do?" Logan asked. "And then when I try to stop you, you let them try to kill me as you ran off?"

"No…" Carlos began. "No, I didn't…I mean I don't…"

"You don't what, Carlos?" James asked.

"I don't know," Carlos said dejectedly. "I don't know who those people were or why they helped me escape. I don't even know why I ran. I was just afraid," he said, looking up at James and Logan. "I was arrested for killing the girl that I loved and I was afraid that I would be put in jail for something I didn't do. So when these people helped me escape, I just ran. I wish I didn't, but I just was afraid. Please, you have to believe me."

"You know, you keep saying that we have to believe you," James said. "But we really don't have to. Maybe if you didn't lie to us when we first came to you. Maybe if you told us the truth about everything. Maybe if you didn't run away after being arrested. Maybe then we would believe you. But you lied, and you avoided telling us everything, and you resisted arrest. Please, tell me why we should believe you after you did all of that."

"Please, you have to believe me because I'm telling the truth! I promise I will tell you everything I know, but please, just listen to me! I _didn't_ kill Jennifer!" Carlos cried desperately.

Logan and James looked at each other. "Why'd you lie?" Logan asked.

"When?" Carlos asked, both relieved that the detectives seemed to be giving him and a chance and confused at the question.

"When we first came to you, we asked where you had been between 10:00PM and 10:00AM and you said that you had gone to sleep early that night. You were actually at Jennifer Moroe's house. Why did you lie?"

"Jennifer and I…Jennifer was scared," Carlos said. "She called me around 11:00 asking me to come over. She was afraid of her boyfriend. She had just broken up with her and he was being crazy and possessive and kept calling her, so she didn't want to be alone. I went over and we watched some TV and the phone kept ringing and she would pick it up and hear him or wouldn't hear anything because he was just on the phone not talking. I told her to just take it off the hook, but she said that her friends, the other two Jennifers, were out at a club and may call her for a ride and she didn't want to leave them downtown without any way of getting back.

"So the next time the phone rang I picked it up and there was someone on the other line but he didn't say anything so I assumed it was her ex-boyfriend and started yelling at him to leave her alone. And I just said a lot of…vulgar…things and called him a lot of names. I then said that Jennifer had moved on and was now dating me and that if he called again I would kill him.

"So I didn't want to tell you guys I was at Jennifer's that night because I was afraid that you were going to arrest me for, like, disturbing the peace or threatening someone or something. I never thought that Jennifer was actually dead…"

"So you lied because you didn't want to get in trouble for threatening this guy, this ex-boyfriend?" James asked.

Carlos nodded.

"What did Jennifer say after you said you were dating her?" Logan asked, not sure if he believed Carlos' story.

"She was a little weirded out, I think," Carlos said, thinking. "She kind of was a bit awkward about it. I mean, I was just making it up, I knew she didn't want to date me, but I forgot to tell her that I was just saying that so he wouldn't call again. That's why she scratched me."

"She scratched you because you lied about being her boyfriend?" Logan asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah," Carlos tried to explain. "You see, I was sitting on her couch to her left next to one table that held my drink and she was sitting next to the other table that had the phone. When the phone rang again I got up and answered it and sat down to her right. After I hung up and everything I went to reach over her to get my drink, but she thought I was trying to make a move on her or something so she scratched me. I was all confused and she started yelling at me a little and I explained to her that I was just saying that to get him to stop calling. And it had worked so we laughed about it and went back to watching TV. I fell asleep there and left around 5:00 that morning and then you guys came to my apartment and told me that she was dead."

"Did she give you that black eye too?" James asked.

"No, I really did get this from opening the kitchen cabinet into my face. I really am a bit of a klutz," Carlos answered, the ghost of a smile appearing on his face.

It was convenient. Very convenient. And Logan hated when things just happened to work out one way. It was unrealistic when it happened in TV or in movies, and it was just preposterous to assume that it happened in real life. So Carlos just happens to be scratched by Jennifer Moroe and just happens to give himself a black eye before she's killed. And he just happens to be there, just happens to be at her apartment during the time Dr. Bitters said she was killed. And there also just happens to be some evil ex-boyfriend?

Logan didn't like it and was having trouble believing it. He actually wouldn't even believe it at all if it wasn't for the look on Carlos Garcia's face every time Logan saw him. Carlos just seemed so sincere, so sure that they were going to believe him when he said he didn't kill Jennifer Moroe and when he said he didn't know who helped him escape. They needed more information. More evidence before he would be completely sure that Carlos Garcia was indeed guilty of killing Jennifer Moroe.

"What's her boyfriend's name?" Logan asked Carlos.

Carlos looked up and looked from James to Logan. "I don't know," he said. "She never really told me anything like that. I guess she only told the other Jennifers stuff like that. But I would bet my life that he was the one who did it. He, whoever he is, killed Jennifer."

"Why would he kill her?" James asked, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. After all, here was this boyfriend, who Carlos didn't even know the name of, who just happened to be the one who killed Jennifer Moroe, according to Carlos Garcia. James was having trouble believing anything that Carlos said.

"I don't know," Carlos said, shrugging. "Maybe he was mad that she wouldn't talk to him or something."

"Would there be any one else who would want Jennifer dead?" Logan asked.

Carlos shook his head. "No, no way. Everyone loved Jennifer. She could be a bit catty sometimes but nothing extremely mean. She just hung out with people who were mean sometimes. I don't know anyone who would want her dead."

"Except her boyfriend," James added.

"Yeah, except her boyfriend," Carlos hurriedly agreed.

"Okay," James said. "I think that's all of the questions we have for now. Officer Tyler is going to take you to your cell now—"

"What, wait, my cell? I'm still going to prison?" Carlos yelled frantically.

"Mr. Garcia, we need to check up on all of the information you gave us, and you are still a suspect. Even if we find out that everything you said was true, we still need to detain you for resisting arrest. You will have a hearing tomorrow to determine if you will be eligible to be released on bail. Are you sure you do not want a lawyer?" Logan asked.

Carlos nodded, tears in his eyes again. "Yeah, I'm sure," he said quietly. "Only guilty people need lawyers."

And with that, Officer Tyler took Carlos away.

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><p><strong>How was it? I hope you liked it! And next chapter will feature, yes you guessed, KENDALL KNIGHT! WOOOOO! What role do you think he is going to play? :) Please review and have an awesome day!<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello, faithful readers! Sorry it has taken me so long to get this next chapter out to you. I was busy all day and then I had issues with uploading so I had to wait until now to give this to you, so I sincerely apologize. I would like to thank all of you wonderful reviewers-hearing back from you essentially every chapter has been awesome and I really can't thank you enough for all of your kind words.**

**In this chapter you will be meeting Kendall! So get ready for that :)**

**And just a quick shout out to MiiMyselfandTime, DaniiLuvsBTR, Scarlet Amber, TurnUpTheBassAndTreble, and tank602 who all reviewed last chapter. Thanks for reviewing! And you are all awesome. And MiiMyselfandTime, no I do not watch "Castle," but my friend and her mom watch it and they LOVE it. I may have to check it out this summer :)**

**Sorry for the long note, and on with the chapter!**

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><p>Logan and James went to Carlos Garcia's bail hearing the next day. While waiting for the hearing to begin, they discussed the case so far.<p>

"So did Jennifer Moroe's friends tell you anything about a boyfriend?" Logan asked James, who had called the victim's friends earlier that morning.

"They said that Jennifer never said anything about a boyfriend," James responded. "They said that she always told them about the guys she dated and for her to keep one a secret would be weird and completely unlike her."

Logan raised his eyebrows. "So I guess Carlos is lying," he said. James nodded, but neither of them were about to accept that full-on. Sure, Carlos had lied to them before during this case, and what he was saying and his explanations for things were definitely too convenient for both of them to completely accept, but something about this case didn't feel right. For some reason, both James and Logan were having trouble accepting that Carlos was guilty of murdering Jennifer Moroe.

Their thoughts about the case were interrupted when they heard Carlos' name called, indicating that it was his turn to have his hearing.

"Oh hey, look," Logan whispered to James. "Kendall Knight from the District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case against Carlos."

"Kendall Knight?" James whispered back. The name sounded familiar but he had never met him before.

"Yeah," Logan responded quickly. "He's Katie Knight's brother, from the ME's office. He's good to work with, don't worry."

James nodded and listened to the proceedings. Since Carlos didn't have a lawyer, he really didn't have anyone fighting for him during this hearing. When Kendall said that the DA's office thought that Carlos should be held without bail, Carlos didn't even know what to say. Upon hearing that Carlos had run away from police and resisted arrest before, the judge immediately agreed with Kendall and Carlos was returned to his cell without any hope of getting out again until the case was over, and that was only if he was found not guilty.

After the hearing James and Logan left the courtroom and walked towards Kendall.

"Hey, Kendall!" Logan called after the lawyer.

"Hey, Logan," Kendall said, a little distracted.

"Hey, I'm James Diamond. I'm Logan's—" James started to say.

"Partner," Kendall interrupted. "Yeah, nice to meet you. So, what happened to you guys?" Kendall asked, gesturing to Logan's and James' stitches.

"Oh, you know, the dangerous life of a police detective," Logan said, shrugging humorously. "You wouldn't know about that, being a lawyer and all…"

"Yeah, yeah," Kendall said, laughing at his friend's teasing. But he stopped smiling when he saw Carlos being led away to the police car that transferred him from the precinct to the courthouse.

"So," Logan said, frowning at the distracted look on Kendall's face. "How do you think this case is going to go?"

"What case?" Kendall asked, not fully paying attention to reality, but rather getting lost in his own thoughts.

"The case that you're here for…" Logan said slowly, looking at Kendall concerned.

"Kendall?" James asked when Kendall didn't respond.

"What? Oh, yeah, sorry about that…" Kendall said without offering an explanation.

"Logan asked how you felt about the case," James said. "_What kind of lawyer spaces out like that_?" James thought to himself, not really liking Kendall Knight too much upon first meeting him.

"Sorry," Kendall said. "I wasn't paying attention. But anyway I'm glad you asked because I'm not going to be working this case anymore."

"What?" Logan asked. "District Attorney Rocque doesn't think you can handle it?"

Kendall shook his head. "No, Gustavo assigned me this case himself for once instead of making Kelly do it all. I think I'm going to ask to be dismissed from it though."

"Who's Kelly?" James asked quickly. "And why do you want to be dismissed from this case? Do you not think there's enough evidence against him?" he asked incredulously because, after all, there was a substantial amount of evidence against Carlos Garcia.

"Kelly is the Assistant District Attorney, but she does more work than the District Attorney, Gustavo Rocque, does," Logan answered swiftly. "Now, Kendall, why are you going to ask to be dropped from the case?"

Kendall shrugged. "I don't know. It's not a matter of enough evidence, but…I just…it doesn't feel right."

Upon seeing James' and Logan's confused faces, Kendall continued to explain. "You see, I became a lawyer to put bad people in jail and protect the good people. There is so much evidence against Carlos Garcia proving that he's guilty, but I just don't think he is. I mean he doesn't even have a lawyer! He has no idea what to do and I just…call it a gut instinct or whatever, but I just don't think he's guilty. I can't prosecute a man who I don't think is guilty."

James and Logan were quiet for a moment. Then Logan said, "I know what you mean."

James nodded. "I know I feel the same way about this. I don't necessarily think he's innocent, but I don't think he's guilty yet."

Logan agreed. "It's like I keep wanting to go back to the crime scene or Carlos' apartment and find more evidence against him, but we have plenty of evidence against him. The fact that I want more evidence seems to indicate to me that maybe he's not guilty."

"I _know_ there is enough evidence to convince a jury," Kendall said. "And the fact that he doesn't have a lawyer makes it even easier to charge him. Just something about this feels wrong."

"We may be able to convince a jury that he's guilty, but I know that I have yet to convince myself," James said, surprised that he felt so relieved that Logan and Kendall agreed with him.

"All right," Kendall said taking charge. "It looks like we might need to investigate this a little more. I won't ask to be dropped from the case yet. That way I'll have access to Carlos and the case and things like that. The trial is in a week. That means that we have less than a week to figure out what really happened. There is so much evidence against Carlos Garcia that the only way I see it being possible to clear him is to find out who actually killed Jennifer Moroe."

"So we're working as a team now?" James asked, surprised that he went from not liking Kendall Knight to all of a sudden being on the same team as him to prove innocent the guy that he had arrested twice the day before.

"If that works for you guys," Kendall said hesitantly, realizing that he had kind of just jumped into this and had expected Logan and James to agree and join him right away.

Logan and James looked at each other.

"I'm in," Logan said simply, and then looked at James.

James hesitated. Sure, he was a little unsure about the case, but that didn't mean he thought Carlos was innocent. He just didn't know if Carlos was guilty. But there was so much evidence…

"I just want to find out the truth," James said. "So I'm in."

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><p><strong>So a lot of you thought that Kendall would be the ex-boyfriend, but no, I made him a lawyer. How do you all feel about that? I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and there will be more to come sometime tomorrow. Have a great daynight/whatever and please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry that all of Chapter 8 was bolded. I don't know what happened, but I tried to fix it. Hahaha and thank you all for reviewing! I'm not sure if I made this clear to you all before, but I am writing the story ahead of when I post it, so now I am posting Chapter 9, but I have written up to and including Chapter 13. So I basically know what chapters are going to come up. The next few chapters are more dialogue and case based, but I promise you that some great action is coming soon. Just stay tuned and stay excited!**

**So once again, thank you all for your wonderful and super kind reviews. And please review some more! I hope you like this chapter!**

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><p>After agreeing to form this team to find out what really happened to Jennifer Moroe, Kendall, James, and Logan agreed to meet at Logan's place after they were done work. There they could talk about the evidence and all of the information regarding Carlos Garcia's case.<p>

"So how do you know Kendall?" James asked Logan as they waited for Kendall to arrive at Logan's apartment for their meeting.

"He was a prosecutor for a case I had before you came here," Logan called from the kitchen. "He was really easy to work with and wasn't as condescending or demeaning as some of the other lawyers from the DA's office can be, so we got along pretty well. And then I found out he and Katie were siblings and we started to hang out. And we became friends I guess. He likes ice hockey too, by the way. Got a full hockey scholarship to the University of Minnesota, actually."

James nodded. Sure, he and Kendall might have hockey as a shared interest, but he just didn't necessarily trust the guy. He didn't usually trust people right away and Kendall seemed like someone he should keep at bay until he got to know him better.

James was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of knocking at the door and the door opening.

"Hey, James," Kendall greeted. "Hey, Logan, I let myself in," he then called out to Logan.

"All right," Logan said, coming out of the kitchen with a few snacks to eat while they investigated and theorized about the case. "Where do we start?"

"Well," Kendall began, "Carlos is the number one suspect. So if we want to find out the truth, we should just take him out of the equation."

"Take him out of the equation?" James asked skeptically.

"Yeah," Kendall answered. "We think that Carlos is innocent so that means someone else is guilty. By taking Carlos out of the equation, we are forced to find another suspect."

"Whoa, hold on a minute," James said quickly. "When did we agree that Carlos was innocent?"

"At the courthouse we agreed that Carlos may not have killed—" Kendall started to say.

"Precisely," James interrupted. "We said that Carlos _may not_ have killed Jennifer. Not that he is definitely innocent! Where do you get off just taking charge—"

"James, we're on the same team!" Kendall yelled at James.

"Guys!" Logan interjected, stopping Kendall's and James' yelling match. "We are _allies_ here. We are trying to find out the truth about what happened to Jennifer Moroe. And that truth may be finding Carlos Garcia guilty or it may involve finding him innocent and tracking down the actual murderer. Either way, we are trying to find out the truth, and together, we have the power and the resources to do so. So no fighting, unless you want justice to not be served."

With Logan's mildly dramatic speech, Kendall and James reluctantly put their argument aside and began investigating the case.

"So Carlos thinks that the only other person who could have possibly killed Jennifer Moroe is a boyfriend who may or may not exist," Logan said.

"Jett Stetson," Kendall said simply. "Her boyfriend was Jett Stetson."

James and Logan looked at each other in surprise. "Jett Stetson?" James asked. "Jett Stetson, that's all you have to say? Jennifer's best friends didn't even know she had a boyfriend, and Carlos Garcia didn't know his name, but here you are, just coming in saying 'Oh it's Jett Stetson, that's her boyfriend.' What?"

Kendall took a deep breath, growing more and more annoyed at James' apparent hatred for him. "I saw them around a few times," he explained. "Jett and Jennifer went to dinner or clubs that I went to sometimes. I assumed that they were dating."

"Okay," Logan said, hoping to keep the peace between his two friends. "It's 8:00PM now, not too late. Let's go see what Mr. Stetson has to say."

As Logan and James got up to get their coats to leave, Kendall stayed where he was sitting. "I'm just going to stay here," he said. "I'll call in a few favors, see if I can get phone records or something. Besides, I'm not a cop. I can't just go question potential suspects out of the blue. You guys go and I'll investigate a little more."

James and Logan nodded and, after referring to a friend at the police station, they got Jett Stetson's address and were on their way.

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><p>"Please, come in, make yourselves comfortable," Jett Stetson greeted Logan and James as they entered his glamorous apartment. "Please, sit down on here. It's made of genuine Italian leather. You do not want to know how much it cost." He paused. "$500,000. But I assume on a police detective's salary neither of you would know what that even looks like, am I right?" Jett laughed as he essentially insulted the two detectives.<p>

"Uh, no I guess we wouldn't," Logan said, and then jumped right to the point. "We're sorry to bother you, but we have a few questions for you regarding a Jennifer Moroe."

"Yes, what kind of questions?" Jett asked innocently.

"Well, do you know who she is?" James asked.

"Oh, yes I do. I was seeing Jennifer a few times. Just a minor little game to keep me occupied, if you know what I mean. I broke it off with her about a week ago. She was getting too clingy, wouldn't stop pestering me and calling me. Why do you ask?"

James and Logan exchanged glances. "Uh, well," Logan said, "she was murdered two days ago."

"Oh, yes, I did hear about that. What a shame. I heard a jealous friend killed her. Is that right?" Jett said nonchalantly.

"Well we're still investigating," Logan said, confused and horrified at Jett's seeming lack of concern for a girl he once had a relationship with.

"We just wanted to ask you a few questions about your relationship and—" James began.

"And my alibi. Right?" Jett said confidently.

"Uh, well, if you wouldn't mind telling us where you were from 10:00PM on Tuesday to 10:00AM on Wednesday, that would really help us find out what happened to Ms. Moroe," Logan said as calmly as he could.

Jett laughed. "Oh, such a wide timeframe! All right, on Tuesday I went to the Opera with my girlfriend and few of my entourage."

"Your girlfriend?" James interrupted.

"Yes," Jett said smiling. "You don't expect me to have only one romantic partner at a time, do you?"

Unsure of what to say to that, Logan continued to question Jett on where he was. "So when were you at the Opera?"

"The show began at 8:00 and went until 11:00 on Tuesday night. It was dreadful, but it was Jo's birthday—Jo's my girlfriend—and she wanted to go, so," Jett shrugged.

"And where were you after 11:00?" James asked.

"Well, let's see…" Jett made a dramatic "thinking face" and said, "We came back here. Then around 1:00 we went to a club. Around 5:30 we came back here and went to sleep."

"Can we talk to your girlfriend as well?" Logan asked the pompous man in front of him.

"Oh, I would be glad to put you in contact with her, but she is unfortunately away at a spa with her sister. No cell phones or outside world interruptions—it disturbs her Chi, or something like that. But I can give you the information of the other people who went with us."

"That would be great, Mr. Stetson," Logan said getting up from the "genuine Italian leather."

Jett picked up a bell that was sitting next to him on an end table and rang it. Seconds later, a man appeared with a small black case. When Jett opened the case, he revealed it to be an iPad.

"Do you want to pull out your iPad so we can link and I can send you the information that you want?" Jett asked smugly.

"Uh," Logan started to respond but was unsure as to what he should say.

"We, unfortunately, do not have an iPad," James said as kindly as he could, even though Jett was annoying him almost as much as Kendall annoyed him.

"An iPad 3, not an iPad," Jett corrected. "I have enough contacts within Apple to get to test all of their new merchandise before a price is even set. And I cannot believe you do not have an iPad at all! How awful!"

"Well," Logan said politely, "if you could just write down the other people who went to the Opera with you on Tuesday night, that would be really great." He then handed Jett a notepad and a pen.

"Wow, how primitive and archaic!" Jett complained conceitedly as he wrote out a few names and phone numbers on a notepad and handed it back to Logan.

"Thank you very much for your time," Logan said. "If we have any more questions we will contact you."

"Please do," Jett said without getting up. "Have a good evening, detectives. I assume that you can show yourselves out."

And with that, James and Logan left.

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><p><strong>Did you like Jett? I kind of added that iPad thing last minute so hopefully that turned out humorous enough :) Please review and thank you for reading!<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you everyone who reviewed! I am glad that you are thus far enjoying the story. This is a pretty short chapter, but tomorrow I will be posting two chapters, so get ready for that! Hope you like this chapter and have a great day. Please review!**

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><p>"So how'd it go?" Kendall asked when James and Logan came back to Logan's apartment.<p>

"He apparently has an alibi," Logan said. "And while being extremely pompous and arrogant, he was cooperative."

"We're going to call the people who Jett claims were with him when Jennifer was killed," James said.

"Want to help call them all?" Logan asked Kendall.

Kendall agreed to help call and after a few minutes of James, Kendall, and Logan talking on the phone, it was apparent that Jett was telling the truth. Every person that they called all said that they went with Jett to an Opera and then to a club.

"Well that's a dead-end," Kendall said dejectedly.

"Yeah, but it's too late to find another lead. Let's pick this up after work again tomorrow," Logan said, and with that, James and Kendall left Logan's apartment.

After a grueling day at work and further investigations into the Jennifer Moroe murder case, James still wasn't convinced that Carlos was innocent. James trusted evidence because evidence didn't lie. Humans, however, did.

"But it doesn't feel right, right, James?" Kendall asked, the aggravation clear in his tone. "That's why we're here, that's why we all agreed that we were going to investigate this case further. Or did you just join this team for fun?"

"Did I just join this team for fun," James said, disbelief dripping from his tone. "For _fun_? Seriously? Geez, Kendall, and since when are we on a _team_. Since when do I even take orders from you? I barely even know you and here you are just ordering me around. Well, guess what. I'm done. I am not going to just stand here while you—"

"James!" Logan yelled, stopping James' rant. "Guys! Calm down."

Logan's interruption had a calming effect on both Kendall and James and they stopped yelling. However, it did not stop them from glaring at each other from across Logan's dining room where they were working.

"Kendall, you became a lawyer because you wanted to put bad people away," Logan said. "And James, you became a police officer, and then a detective, because you wanted to stop bad people and help Kendall get them put away."

"I do _not_ want to help _him_!" James yelled, gesturing at Kendall.

"Well I don't want—" Kendall started to yell back.

"Shut up!" Logan yelled. "_I need to get new friends_," he thought to himself. "My point is, that both of you are here to make a difference. And whether that is a big difference or a little difference, all of us are here because we want to help the good and the innocent. We want to stop the bad people from being able to do more bad things. Now with Carlos Garcia, we don't know. Maybe he's a good guy and we should prove that he's innocent."

At this statement, Kendall started to nod while James rolled his eyes.

"But," Logan continued before James or Kendall could interrupt him. "He may be guilty. He may be the best actor in the world and is just playing us to _think_ that he's innocent. Hey, maybe even the whole 'only guilty people need lawyers' thing is part of his scam. The point is, we got into this profession to help the innocent. It's not a question of is Carlos Garcia innocent, and how to prove or disprove that. Rather, it's knowing that Jennifer Moroe was innocent. She was innocent and then she was brutally killed. We owe it to Jennifer Moroe to find out the truth. And we may not like the truth, and we may not want to agree with the truth, but it's the truth and we need to accept it."

James and Kendall were silent after Logan's speech.

"How about we call it a night," Logan said, finally breaking the silence after a few minutes. "It's been a stressful week and we need to clear out heads. Let's meet up here again around 2:00PM."

"2:00?" James asked staring at Logan as if his partner had lost his mind. "Logan we don't get out of work until—"

"James," Logan interrupted, laughing a little. "You really do need some time off. Tomorrow is Saturday and we're not scheduled to take any shifts this weekend. It's Friday, dude."

James was quiet for a minute and then laughed. "Yeah, I guess it has been a stressful week," he muttered, shaking his head.

"All right," Logan said. "So 2:00, tomorrow. We'll meet here to further investigate the _truth_ behind Jennifer Moroe's death."

"2:00," Kendall agreed and grabbed his things to leave. "See you then."

After Kendall left without so much as an apologetic glance towards James, James, equally as unapologetic gathered his things to leave as well. "See you tomorrow, Logan."

"See you, James," Logan called out and James left.

The next day James found himself sitting in the diner where he and Logan has eaten the first day they met. He was lost in thought about the case and how anyone, let alone a prosecutor like Kendall Knight, could think that Carlos Garcia was innocent with all of the evidence against him.

"Hey, James," Logan said, startling James from his thoughts. "Knew you'd be here," he said smiling. "And you claim I don't know anything about you."

James laughed. "I never said that you don't know anything about me," he said.

"Yeah, but I don't," Logan replied simply.

"You don't, what?" James asked, confused as to where this conversation was going.

"I don't know anything about you, James," Logan said. "We're partners. We're supposed to trust each other; we're supposed to lay our lives on the line _knowing_ that the other will protect it. And I do that! I trust you entirely. But here I am, trusting you with my life, which is very important to my well-being, by the way, yet I don't know anything about you."

"Sure you do," James said, yet not really convincing himself, because Logan's thought had caused him to form a thought of his own. "_I_, on the other hand, do not know anything about _you_."

The two partners looked at each other and laughed. "So here we are," Logan said, a hint of a smile on his face but completely serious in his words, "best friends, partners, whatever you want to call it, but we have never been completely honest to the other."

"I guess so," James said humorously shrugging his shoulders.

"Well then tell me about yourself," Logan said simply and directly.

James wanted to laugh again, thinking that Logan's line of questioning, so to speak, was a poor attempt at a joke. However, looking at Logan, he knew his partner was serious, and he didn't know what to say.

"I…" James started, but there were so many thoughts and so many words. His past wasn't something he liked to think about often. It actually wasn't something that he liked to think about at all. Rather, he kept it locked away inside his head, hoping that the things that he faced every day would not unlock that past, those memories. Because if James knew one thing in the world, it was that he did not _ever_ want to experience again what he had experienced just two four ago.

Upon James' loss for words, Logan said, "I'll go first."

And with that, James Diamond heard for the first time why Logan Mitchell became a police officer.

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><p><strong>Tomorrow you will get to find out what happened to James and Logan that made them want to become police officers. Hope you're excited! And please review!<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello! I hope all of you are having a wonderful day :) Here is Part I of the two chapters I will be updating today. I hope you like them. To be honest I'm not really a fan of these two chapters, Logan's and James' backstories, but they needed to be told. So I hope you semi-enjoy them at least! Thanks all who reviewed, and I would really like more reviews for these two chapters!**

**Hope you enjoy and thank you for reading!**

**Oh, P.S. there is a mild curse word in this chapter...I'm not sure if any of you would be insulted by that so just be aware :) (hint: it's the "h-word"...hahaha, I'm not sure if any of you consider that a curse, but I do so...hahah :) )**

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><p>"I always wanted to be a doctor," Logan started, looking at his hands that were resting on the table. "You know, when kids are first introduced to the world and to the opportunities that would face them in the future, so many things affect how they act. I was always a small kid, usually the shortest in the class and most definitely the skinniest. But I was good at things. I could climb the rope in gym class and ace every test that came my way. And it was fun and it all made sense to me. There was always an answer, and sure, maybe you had to research or hunt around a bit, but in the end, there was always an answer.<p>

"So then I got older and outgrew the little toy doctor's bag and supplies that my parents gave me when I was young. And I moved so I changed schools and somewhere and at some point, school became less about being friends with everyone and became making friends that wouldn't hurt your social reputation. And it just didn't make sense to me, because I always thought who cares if you like to read and who cares if you do this or that. Just be nice and be yourself and everyone can be friends with everyone.

"Well at that time I was the new kid and I was awkward. I liked going to school because I liked learning, and that made be the social pariah with the other kids in my class. And I was strong and athletic enough that could have helped my popularity, but I fell into a lake when I was younger and got asthma, so I became that wheezing kid who was made of bone and skin. But like I said, I could still do things. I could play sports well and do the things that made everyone else popular, but no one really seemed to care about that because I was still a nerd. And it just didn't make sense.

"So then I got older and made enough friends to get by in high school, but I discovered that my true friends were math and science."

James scoffed at this statement and Logan laughed. "It's true!" Logan claimed, smiling. "Anyway, I liked science and math because they had answers, and things could be explained. Just because my social life as the weird kid in school didn't make sense to me, it didn't mean that I didn't have any answers, because science and math gave me answers.

"So, like I said, I always wanted to be a doctor when I was a kid. It started with that little doctor's kit and grew into an interest for knowing answers and things making sense, which then kindled the fire of a love for science and math. So I studied medical journals for fun, and I subscribed to doctor magazines. I read everything about being a doctor that I could get my hands on. I just loved the thought of being a doctor, of studying enough and doing enough research to help me help others by finding the medical answers that people were looking for."

Logan paused and took a deep breath. "_Now here comes the harder part_," he thought to himself before continuing.

"So I got a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University. I was going to major in Biology and Chemistry and follow the Pre-Med concentration. I had it all figured out, which impressed enough people that my freshman year, when I was 18 years old, I had an internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I helped doctors and nurses and I was learning so much that they would usually send me down to the Emergency Room to help out with the simpler procedures when there was an overflow of patients.

"So one day the hospital gets a call saying that there was a car accident, and while there weren't any casualties, there were a lot of people coming in with minor injuries just to be checked out. So I'm going from patient to patient, seeing if cuts would need stitches, helping to stop some bleeding, whatever was needed, when I come across this guy. And he reeks of alcohol. I was 18 and a goody two shoes so I had never drank any alcohol before in my life, but even I knew that this guy smelled like some hard liquor. So I wave one of the policemen over to do a breathalyzer test, to make sure that he wasn't so drunk that he could get alcohol poisoning and would need his stomach pumped or whatever, and his alcohol level was 0.07, just under the legal limit of alcohol you're allowed to have before you can't drive.

"So the Emergency Room had calmed down a bit and I'm waiting with the police officer and this nearly drunk guy and the policeman tells me that this guy is extremely lucky that he can't be charged with a DUI, because he's the one who caused the entire accident. And I'm a bit in shock because this was a massive car accident that involved a little less than ten cars. I saw some injured people come in with cuts that were so deep that they needed stitches, and here was the guy who caused the whole thing and he didn't even have a scratch on him. He was brought in because he seemed a little dazed and maybe he had a concussion. But he didn't—he was dazed because he had been drinking.

"I'm staring at this guy, not believing that he caused the accident, when the police officer receives a call on his radio to keep an eye on this guy and arrest him after he's checked out by the doctors because he's actually wanted for attempted murder and armed robbery in Northern Virginia."

James' eyebrows shot up in shock. "You're kidding," he said incredulously.

Logan shook his head. "Unfortunately I'm not. So anyway just as this radio call is coming in, a stretcher is wheeled into the ER with a little girl on it, with a paramedic on the stretcher with her giving her CPR. She had been in the car with her mother when the nearly drunk guy went into her lane of traffic and crashed into her car. She was fine one second and then she suddenly just passed out. She stopped breathing, and then her heart stopped and the paramedics rushed her in as soon as they could, but it was too late."

James stared at Logan, horrified. "What happened?" he asked quietly.

"Apparently she had internal bleeding. She was in shock from the accident and she didn't realize the pain until it was too late and she died."

Logan paused. Even after ten years, this little girl's death still got to him. He looked at James and continued his story. "And I just didn't get it. I wanted to be a doctor because things made sense. I wanted to solve problems using logic and science, yet here was something that I couldn't explain. Why did a little six year old girl die because some drunk guy crashed his car into hers? Why did this innocent girl die and the man who caused the accident walk away without a scratch? And what affected me the most was this guy was a wanted criminal. He robbed a gas station and shot the cashier, leaving him for dead. He was wanted by the police, yet the police didn't do their job. They didn't catch this guy and they didn't protect the innocent. I always wanted to understand everything and receive solid answers for all of my questions, yet here was something I couldn't answer and I couldn't explain."

"So you decided to become a police officer?" James asked when Logan didn't continue with the rest of the story.

"Well, yeah," Logan said hesitantly. This was the first time he was telling anyone about this, about the poor little girl who died because some guy decided to drive after drinking alcohol. "But…well…okay. So this girl is dead because of this idiot who is completely unharmed. And this guy could have been arrested earlier, could have been stopped from killing this girl if only the police had done their jobs. And I know now that things aren't that easy, that police officers work so hard but sometimes the bad guys get away. But then, when I was 18, I wanted answers and explanations, and I wasn't getting any. And I was so mad and confused about all of this. For once, I couldn't think of a logical explanation or an answer to why this happened."

"So you became a cop because of the little girl?" James asked quietly when Logan hesitated.

Logan smiled softly, but there was no humor or even happiness on his features. "No," he said. "The girl's death itself didn't make me want to become a police officer. It was afterwards. Her mother called her husband, and he brought the girl's two little brothers and older sister to the hospital. And the mother and father started to cry, and this caused the two younger brothers to cry. But the sister, the older girl, she didn't make a sound. She was about nine years old and she just had this stoic look on her face. And…and I don't know how I knew, but I just looked at this girl and knew that she wasn't in shock. She wasn't emotionless because she was still trying to process what had happened. I knew when I saw her face that she understood what had happened, and she wasn't showing any signs of understanding because she knew that her life would never be the same again. She woke up that morning and she had a sister. Then, the next thing she knows she doesn't.

"And seeing such a young girl completely thrown off course, going through such a traumatic moment…it just hit hard, James. And it hurt. Here I was, so obsessed with finding answers and explanations, yet here was a situation where there weren't any answers or explanations. No matter how hard I tried I would never be able to understand why this little girl had to die and change her family's lives forever, while the criminal who caused the accident made it out without a scratch. It didn't make sense and I blamed the police for a time. They didn't do their job, and because of that, a criminal killed a six year old girl. So the best thing for me to do, I decided, was to become a police officer. If I did that I would get a chance to stop the crime that could lead to more pain and suffering. I became a police officer to help stop criminals and to help protect the good people who don't deserve to be ripped from the lives that they are living, like that poor little girl."

James was silent as he let Logan's story sink in. He had no idea that Logan was traumatized so much that he became a police officer to stop more crime from being committed. The whole wanting to be a doctor thing made sense though. Since he became Logan's partner, James heard more random medical factoids than he had ever heard before in his life. He had always thought that Logan was just weird, but apparently these facts stemmed from the years of studying he had done when his dream was to be a doctor.

"I'm sorry," James said, unsure of what else to say.

"Yeah," Logan nodded, his eyes filled with unshed tears at the memory of the life lost that day when he was 18. "I can't forget about her…them, about the girl who died and her stoic sister and her devastated family. I think about her and them every day, and it gives me the courage and the strength to always do everything that I can to find out the truth, to find justice."

James nodded. He understood why Logan had decided to have this heart-to-heart with him now. This was Logan's way of telling James that he trusted him, and that James should trust him too. And that this trust should include letting one partner follow leads or investigate cases that the other partner didn't necessarily believe in or agree with. James still wasn't convinced that Carlos was anything but guilty, but Logan shared his shocking past with him in hopes of helping him understand why Logan needed to look into this case more. He needed answers, and he needed James to understand this.

"That's what partners are, James," Logan continued to speak as if he knew what James was thinking. "They trust each other and know when to lead and when to follow. And they do this without question. After I became detective, I was partnered with Camille Roberts. She was the veteran detective and she thought that her experience made her right all of the time. We would investigate and if I started to suggest theories or say something that opposed her analysis, she would slap me—"

"Slap you?" James asked, definitely not expecting Logan to say that.

Logan laughed. "Yeah, she would _slap_ me, right across the face. And then she would laugh about it or joke about it. And I mean at first I didn't really care because she didn't do it that often. But then as I got more experience with cases and started the see things differently than she did, she slapped me more and more. So I confronted her about it and asked her not to do it again."

"How did she react?" James asked.

"Well," Logan said, a smile beginning to form on his lips. "She slapped me again."

James laughed and said, "You're kidding!"

Logan shook his head. "Unfortunately, no," he said. "So she got mad at me and we got in a fight, if you want to call it that. So later that day we got a call from headquarters saying that someone just saw some guy dumping a dead body. Camille and I arrived at the scene before backup and we heard gunshots coming from this creepy old storage facility so we ran in. There were only two of us, so we were supposed to stick together, guard each other, like we learn at the police academy. So I went first and Camille was behind me, but she decided to split up without telling me. I heard a noise behind me and assumed it was Camille, or that she would tell me what it was, but she wasn't there. So next thing I know, this huge guy jumps me. We're fighting and I'm doing as well as I can but this guy is huge. So he has a gun and he shoots me three times. Backup came a few seconds later and took him out."

"Wait, you were shot _three times_?" James asked with wide eyes. "How do I not know this?"

"He shot me three times, but he didn't _hit_ me," Logan explained. "He shot me in the chest and I was wearing a bullet proof vest so it hurt like hell and I fractured my sternum, but I was fine. So Camille and I were chewed out and yelled at for separating, but we caught the guy and no one really got hurt so it didn't go on our records."

"What did Camille say?" James asked.

"She apologized, but," Logan shrugged, "I just couldn't trust her. So I told her that I was going to ask to be partnered with someone else and she decided that she would rather just leave Baltimore and put it all behind her. So she did, and I was partner-less for less than a month and then I got paired up with you." Logan smiled.

"Yeah, lucky you," James said, smiling back at his partner.

"And I trust you, James," Logan said.

After Logan finished his stories, James hoped that he wouldn't have to tell his. He hoped that Logan would forget that he hadn't heard James' story and just forget about it. But James was not so lucky. Upon looking up from the table, James saw Logan's patient and expecting face. He knew he had to tell Logan how he came to become a police officer.

He nodded at Logan. "I guess it's my turn then?" he asked as casually as he could, but just thinking about his past made him anxious.

Logan smiled that reassuring Logan smile that James needed, but hated that Logan gave him. It would be easier to just refuse telling Logan about his past if Logan wasn't so nice and supportive all of the time.

"It may help to get it off of your chest," Logan said, smiling gently.

James was silent for a minute, and Logan was almost certain that his partner was going to refuse to tell him anything. But then, James began to speak.

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><p><strong>Hope you liked it! James' backstory will be up soon too, so be sure to read that. Warning about James' story though...it has a bit more of a mature theme than Logan's so just be aware. Thanks for reading and please review!<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**As promised, here is James' backstory. And as I said before, I'm not necessarily a fan of these two backstory chapters, but oh well, they needed to be told! So please enjoy and please review!**

**WARNING: JAMES' BACKSTORY INVOLVES MATURE THEMES, BUT THEY ARE NOT THAT GRAPHIC. PLEASE BE AWARE.**

**Thanks and have a great day!**

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><p>"It's not what you would expect," James started. "I wanted to be famous. I could sing and dance and act and, I don't know, model, I guess, but I never really wanted to do that. I didn't want to be a singer or a dancer or an actor or a model. I mean I liked those things enough to do them for the rest of my life, but they were never my passion. I wanted to be famous. <em>Fame<em> was my passion. And how I got there…it didn't matter. I just wanted to be famous.

"My parents were always supportive of me. They always wanted me to be happy and they were both successful enough that they could essentially pay for me to be happy. So I told them that instead of going to college I wanted to go to Los Angeles and be famous. They were supportive, in the beginning. My mom asked me what I had planned, like where would I live, what would I eat, would I be safe, you know that kind of thing. My dad asked me which auditions I was going to go to, did I have any lined up, and things like that.

"But as my senior year of high school was coming to a close, my parents asked me what I was going to do while in Los Angeles. Like would I be a singer or an actor, things like that. And I told them that I didn't care, as long as it made me famous. And I guess that was the last straw. They were mad that I didn't really have a goal or a dream. They said that I lacked direction and that as long as I didn't have a plan they weren't going to finance me going to LA.

"So I yelled at them and fought with them because how was I supposed to get to Los Angeles if my parents weren't paying for it? So they told me to get a job and go to Community College and try to figure out my passion before going to LA. Well, I didn't want that so I left. I had some money saved up from working and chores and things like that, so I left, found a cheap place to live outside of Los Angeles and for two or three months I woke up and went to auditions all day and then would go back to my place and do it all again the next day.

"But then I ran out of money. I was kicked out of the cheap place I had been staying at and began to just work all day at whatever job I could find so that I could get enough money for a night at a motel so that I could sleep and shower and stuff like that. Sometimes I would work all day and not have any auditions I could go to. Other times I had auditions but I didn't have enough money to get a place to stay so that I could clean myself up and look presentable. But I still did it every day and sometimes it all worked out and I would get auditions that would pay me enough so I didn't have to go to work but then when that money ran out I'd be back where I started. This went on for years."

"Why didn't you go home?" Logan asked, concern showing in his eyes after thinking that his partner, James Diamond, was essentially a vagrant without a home and without any luck for so long.

"I was stubborn," James said simply. "My parents didn't understand why I wanted to be famous and I didn't understand why they tried to force me to go to college. And even if I did realize that I was wrong, I wasn't about to admit it, especially to my parents.

"So, anyway, one day, when I was 22 years old I managed to pay for a motel room for the night on the tips that I got at my job and I had exactly $0.76 left over. So I went to the vending machines to find something to eat. And I must have stood there for ten minute or so just staring, trying to figure out what would help cease my hunger the best, taste the best, and last the longest. When I finally make a decision, I realized that the cheapest thing in the machine was $0.80. I didn't have enough money.

"So then this guy is standing next to me and I'm just hungry and in despair over the fact that I don't have enough money to eat when he looks at me and asks how much I need. And I say $0.04 and he laughs at me. He says that here I am, this clearly extremely hungry young kid, and when some obviously wealthy guy in a nice suit asks me how much I need, I tell him the truth. So he gives me a nickel and says that if I want I can come over to his room later and he can help me get back on my feet."

James stopped because his eyes are filled with tears and he doesn't want to cry in front of Logan. He doesn't want his voice to crack either so he tries to calm himself and keep the emotions anchored inside. He doesn't want pity, he just wants to finish this story and then go back to normal.

Logan sees that James is upset, but knows that the best thing for James to do is talk about it. Let his guard down for once and let his emotions and secrets shine through.

"It's okay, James," Logan said softly. "You can trust me."

James nodded and continued. "So I'm young, hungry, and naïve. I go back to my room to make sure that I don't smell or anything and go to the room this guy told me. He's there and his room is just glamorous. And we're at a seedy cheap little crappy motel, yet his room, even with all of the awful motel furniture and beddings, somehow looks nicer than any other motel room I had stayed in.

"He tells me to sit down in a chair, hands me some champagne, and we talk a little. He tells me that his name is Dominic and asks me where I'm from. And I thought that I was the coolest person in the world. I was dirt poor but here I was in this nice motel room with this nice wealthy guy, drinking some expensive champagne. And that was what I wanted and I thought that this Dominic could give it to me. I thought he was a movie director or producer or contracting agent—someone who could help to make me famous.

"So I keep talking and he's listening all intently and everything's great. Then…then I realize that my words are coming out slurred and I'm a little embarrassed because I thought I was already drunk just from half a glass of champagne. And the lights are brighter and noises get louder but everything is slower.

"I still think I'm drunk and the guy helps me up and tells me to lay down for a little, that maybe this dizziness and haze will pass. So I lay down and close my eyes."

James hesitated and quickly wiped at his eyes before continuing. Logan started to get a bad feeling in his stomach about James' mysterious past.

"I seriously felt like I blinked, but I must have fallen asleep or unconscious or something because when I opened my eyes…when I opened my eyes I'm naked except for my underwear. I try to sit up but my limbs are heavy and I can't move. Dominic comes out and I think he's about to help me, but then I realize he's not wearing any clothes and he gets on top of me and starts whispering things and saying things and touching me and…and…"

James looked up toward the ceiling, failing miserably at keeping the tears in his eyes. Logan's bad feeling worsens and he immediately feels guilty for asking James to relive this awful experience. "It's okay, James," he said. "You don't have to tell me any more."

James shakes his head. "No," he said, wiping furiously at his eyes. "No, I have to keep going."

Before Logan can interject or argue that he doesn't have to keep telling his story, James continues. "So he finished doing…he finished and I lost consciousness again. When I woke up it was the next day and I wasn't wearing any clothes and Dominic was next to me on the bed. So I get up and am looking around for something to wear when this thing hits me in the head. I look down and it's a wad of cash. More money than I'd seen in a long, long time.

"Dominic's awake and he says 'That's for last night.' I'm shocked and I don't know what to say. He says 'Go get your things from your room and come back.' I have no idea what to do, so I ask him where my clothes are. I want to go to my room, get my things, and call the police. Dominic laughs at me and basically tells me that I don't have clothes anymore and if I want to go back to my room I'll have to walk out there naked. So I must have given him a weird look because he suddenly laughs and says 'I'm kidding. But, Jimmy, let me ask you something before I give you your clothes. How does that money feel? Does it make your feel safe, secure? Because there's more where that came from if you listen to me for a minute.'

"So I grab a towel from the bathroom because there's no way I'm just going to listen to him while I'm standing there without any clothes on and he tells me that if I stay for another night, then he'll triple the amount of money he's already given me. And…and I was desperate. So I stayed. And he drugged me again and did the same things to me that he did before.

"I wake up the next day and know that I want to leave. That as soon as he gives me my money I'm leaving and never coming back to this part of town. So there are clothes on the bed that I get dressed into and when he comes back I ask for my money. He says that it's at his house and he will give it to me and then drop me off wherever I want to go. And for some reason I believe him, again and I go to his house. He invites me in and then I'm jumped from behind and this rag that is drenched in what I now know is chloroform is shoved in my face and I pass out.

"I wake up in this room in the basement and I'm beaten and starved for a week I guess. He would come down to this room every day, I think, and ask me to be with him forever or something weird as hell like that. And I keep saying no but he won't let me go and he keeps beating me but I take it and I won't give in.

"Then one night this big guy comes down and ties me down to the ground and leaves. Then Dominic comes down and starts yelling at me and kicking me but I just kind of take it. Then…then he does…_it_…again. And then like an hour or so later comes down and does it again. And then again, and again and again until I just don't care anymore and I break.

"So I needed a doctor and he got one for me and he put me in a room that had a lock on the outside so I was locked in this room, but it was better than the basement. And he fed me and stuff like that and it eventually became my home, I guess. I always hated it but I had come to accept it. Then after a year he let me live in the house rather than just be held captive there and I found out there were like three other guys like me. But they liked being there while I didn't. So they didn't like me because I was different from them and because apparently I was 'his favorite.' But I didn't care about them because his sister lived there and she was like my friend. She cooked all the food and lived with all of us, but she didn't really know what was going on. She once asked me why I lived there and when I told her she got all pale and confronted her brother, which resulted in her getting a black eye and me getting locked and beaten down the basement.

"After that we never talked about why I was there, but we just talked. Personal stories, favorite things, that kind of thing. She was my friend. But then one day one of the other guys yelled at her for something stupid. She wasn't going to fight back so I fought back for her and I accidently yelled at him, saying that he wanted to be there but I didn't or something like that. Well, her brother overheard this and locked me in my room. He came in and…and he hurt me really _really_ badly. I couldn't even move after what he did. So the next day he was all apologetic and he did, well, you know, _it_ again and it hurt even more. So he told me to take a week off. Get out of the house and go to this spa thing.

"So I go and I'm confronted by this guy, who says he's with the FBI and they're investigating Dominic because apparently he was some huge mafia guy. They know that I'm not necessarily 100% willing to live there somehow, and make a deal, that if I help them then they will help me to start a new life."

"You're kidding," Logan said, completely shocked that the guy who hurt his partner was involved with organized crime.

"They tell me to set up a meeting with Dominic, one-on-one," James continued. "Then contact the FBI where he would be so that they could arrest him. So I do that. I draw out a map of his house, I say where guards are stationed, I set up the meeting. Everything. I meet with Dominic, and then excuse myself for a minute to get something to drink. Then I contact the FBI to tell them that I'm out of the room and they're clear to go in and get him.

"So I'm standing in the kitchen and I hear the FBI come in and yell at the guards and at him to stay down and stuff, and I hear gunshots, but the FBI has warned me that Dominic may not come in without a fight. So I'm standing there, waiting for someone to tell me that it's all clear when I notice that some spaghetti is being cooked on the stove. The flame is still on and the water is boiling and everything. And I realize that his sister was here; no one else cooks. So I run into the other room where Dominic was waiting for me to come back and everyone is dead, including her."

"The FBI shot her?" Logan asks, horrified.

James nodded sadly. "He used her as a shield at the last second. The shooter had already pulled the trigger and it was too late. So everyone was dead and I was free, but it was my fault she was dead. So I didn't want to stay there anymore, I didn't want to live in LA anymore because it reminded me of all of the bad things that had happened, and I didn't want to live in California because my parents lived in San Diego and I didn't want to ever run into them, so when the FBI asked me what I wanted in my new life, I told them that I wanted to be a police officer because…I don't really know why but it just seemed like the right thing to do. I got my friends killed and the only way that I could find peace just seemed to be with the police.

"So they sent me to Chicago to work with the organized crime division as a rookie. That pissed a lot of people in the Chicago precinct I worked at off because I didn't have any experience, but since I had helped the FBI take down Dominic, who was a huge mafia boss, I was given preference over more experienced officers for this position. I decided to take the detective's exam and I passed. I wasn't well liked or supported too well while in Chicago so I asked to be transferred to anywhere in the U.S. where they needed a homicide detective and, well, here I am."

Logan and James were silent for some time while they let James' story sink in.

"I am so sorry, James," Logan said, sadly looking at his partner from across the table. "I am so sorry that that all happened to you. I wish I could have helped you or something while you went through that."

James shrugged, still trying to clear his eyes of tears. "What happened happened," he said. "It made me the person that I am today and made me become a detective. So it sucks but," he shrugged again, "that's life."

Logan was amazed at how well James seemed to be handling himself. In the three months he had known his new partner, James never seemed to be traumatized or hiding something from him as big as this. But he did know that James was the strongest person he had ever met, and that this strength was a direct result of all the crap he had to put up with a couple years ago. He smiled sadly at James and James smiled back.

"So I guess we trust each other completely, huh?" James asked casually, almost laughing at the fact that this had all started with the concept of trust.

"I guess so," Logan said smiling slightly.

"Well then, let's go find out why you and _Kendall_," James said with a slight grimace, "think that Carlos Garcia is innocent."

Logan laughed. "Kendall comes off a bit strong, sometimes, but he's really not as bad as you think. If you gave him a chance and maybe in a different life under different circumstances, the two of you would probably be best friends."

James scoffed. "Yeah," he said laughing, "that has as much of a chance of happening as you and…you and _Carlos Garcia_ being best friends."

And with that, the two detectives, partners, and friends made their way to Logan's apartment to look over the Jennifer Moroe case again.

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><p><strong>I hope you liked this chapter, even though it was a bit sad. I have to admit, it was harder to hurt poor James than I thought! Please review, and keep your eyes out for the next chapter!<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi, everyone! Thank you to those who reviewed and I hope that you all enjoy this next chapter. I'm really excited for you guys to read more of the story, so stay tuned! Thank and please review!**

**Have a great day!**

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><p>At 2:00, Logan, James, and Kendall met at Logan's apartment to continue working on and investigating the case.<p>

"All right," Logan said when it seemed that James and Kendall were growing frustrated at each other again. "Let's go over what we know."

"Okay," Kendall agreed, willing to do anything other than argue with James and look at more reports and files regarding Jennifer Moroe's murder. "So first, we know that at around 11:00PM Carlos Garcia went to Jennifer Moroe's apartment—"

"We don't know that!" James yelled, interrupting Kendall. "That's what _Carlos Garcia_ said, not what we _know_ happened!"

"_So much for avoiding an argument_," Logan thought to himself as he tried to intervene. "James, yelling is going to get us anywhere! We need to work together—"

But it was now Kendall's turn to interrupt. "I know Carlos said that he went over at 11:00 the night before Jennifer was killed, but I checked—"

"Exactly!" James yelled in response. "Carlos said it! It's not fact, it's not proved, it's not what we know! Stop trying to force your theories and opinions on us, Kendall!"

When James stopped yelling there was silence. Logan's eyes flitted back and forth between his two friends, trying desperately to think of something to say to break tensions.

Kendall, in the meantime, glared back at James, his jaw clenched in anger. "Are you done now, James?" he hissed through clenched teeth. When James didn't saying anything else, but instead chose to glare right back at Kendall, Kendall continued. "What I was trying to say, before you so rudely interrupted me, is that I _know_ Carlos was at Jennifer's apartment around 11:00PM because I watched the security tapes and saw his car arrive at her apartment complex at that time. If you were as good of a detective as you seem to think you are, you probably would have checked that out yourself. But you're too busy sitting on you high horse and condemning Carlos Garcia for a crime that he may not have committed."

Kendall didn't yell, but he may as well have. His voice was icy and full of wrath and hatred. James' expression wavered slightly upon hearing Kendall's insults, but his eyes held the same expressions that Kendall's voice held and there was momentary silence in Logan's dining room.

Logan didn't know what to say. What Kendall said was out of line and mean, but tensions were high and time was steadily running out. James interrupting Kendall wasn't called for either. But he didn't know what to say. And James' next actions stopped him from needing to think of any pacifying comments.

James tore his eyes away from Kendall's just long enough to grab his coat off of the dining room chair. As he was pulling it on, Logan tried to stop him.

"James, please, what are you doing?" he asked frantically.

"I'm taking the rest of the night off," James replied, but did not look at Logan as he was once again glaring at Kendall.

"James…" Logan started but he still didn't know what to say. "James, he didn't mean it," he said quietly to his friend as James walked to the door.

James looked at Logan. "I just need to clear my head," he said softly. "I'll call you tomorrow, but right now, I just…I can't do it right now, okay? I promise, I'll call you tomorrow."

And with that, James left.

Logan leaned against the door and took a deep breath. He saw Kendall looking at him as he sat back down in his seat at the dining room table.

"I'm sorry, Logan," Kendall said, rubbing his face with his hand. "It's been a long week and I have so many things flying around in my head about this case…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things to James, but he just grates my nerves when he doesn't accept that Carlos is innocent!"

"Could be innocent," Logan responded quietly as he made his way back to the dining room.

"What?" Kendall asked, not hearing Logan's soft response.

"Carlos _could_ be innocent. We don't know if he is." Logan continued when he saw Kendall open his mouth to rebuttal. "I know that you are _sure_ that Carlos is innocent, and to tell you the truth, the more we work on this and investigate this, the more I think he's innocent too. But we don't know if he is yet, and when you say what's on your mind…it just bugs James. It bothers him that you are so sure in your convictions and since he isn't, a part of him seems to think that you're trying to force your opinions on him."

When Logan saw Kendall open his mouth once more to refute Logan's theory about James' frustration and anger, he continued. "And I know that you're not trying to make James believe what you believe and you're not trying to force your ideas on him. But I also know that you're a lawyer and argumentative is kind of in the job description. When someone doesn't agree with you, you do everything you can to change his mind. This makes you an _amazing_ lawyer, but it doesn't bode too well with James because James is fiercely independent. And if he feels that you're trying to get him to believe something that he isn't sure he wants to believe, then he's going to do everything he can to go against you."

"We're just so different," Kendall began to say before he stopped when he heard Logan laugh.

"No," Logan said, smiling and shaking his head. "You're not different. You two are like the same people. You have different opinions right now, but you're not different at all."

Kendall thought for a minute and laughed. "Yeah, maybe you're right. I'll apologize to him tomorrow. But for now, let's get back to the case."

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><p>James walked through the streets by his apartment. After he left Logan's apartment he drove over to his place but wanted to release some steam and walk around before he went inside. He had to think this over. He knew that there was something weird going on with the Carlos Garcia and Jennifer Moroe case, but as time went by and he, Logan, and Kendall did more research and turned up nothing, he couldn't see how Carlos <em>wasn't<em> guilty.

"There's too much evidence of guilt and absolutely no solid evidence of innocence," he muttered to himself as he began to walk back to his apartment.

But he was on a team. A team, or a partnership, with Logan. And if Logan believed that Carlos Garcia may be innocent, then Logan deserved James' full attention on trying to find out what happened last Wednesday to Jennifer Moroe.

When James got back to his apartment, he decided to try to research more information about Jett Stetson. He came across Jett's girlfriend, Jo Taylor's, Facebook page and he began to go through some of her pictures to see if he could link Jennifer Moroe to Jett Stetson.

He had gone through hundreds of pictures when he realized how late it was and how tired he was. He left Jo's Facebook page open on his computer to look at the pictures more in the morning when he had a good night's sleep and fresh eyes.

Little did he know that when he woke up and looked at Jo's Facebook again, he would find a picture that would shock him to the core.

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><p><strong>Oooo, I wondered what James will see on Jo's Facebook page...and did you like James' and Kendall's fight? It was kind of fun writing it, so I hoped you liked reading it! :)<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**Because of all of your kind and prompt reviews, I have decided to post Chapter 14 early. I hope you enjoy!**

**Have a great day and please review!**

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><p>Logan and Kendall had met up early Sunday morning to continue going over the case when Logan's apartment door slammed open and an angry James stomped in.<p>

"James," Logan started, concerned at James' angry facial expression and his usually impeccably dressed partner's slightly disheveled appearance. But before he could continue, James started yelling at Kendall.

"When were you going to tell us?" he asked with fury lacing his voice.

"When was I going to tell you what?" Kendall asked, standing up in confusion.

James laughed, but the anger didn't disappear, but rather it intensified. "Don't act like you don't know," he said angrily. Upon seeing Kendall's still confused expression, James jammed his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper with a picture printed on it. He unfolded it hurriedly and shoved it in Kendall's face.

Logan made his way around his table to see what picture had gotten James so angry. And his eyebrows shot up at what he saw. The picture was Kendall and Jo kissing on the beach. Jo's hand was cupping Kendall's face and a beautiful diamond ring shone brightly on her left hand ring finger.

Kendall's confused expression melted from his face and he took the picture gently and looked at it sadly. He glanced over at Logan and looked at James. "I meant to tell you…I just didn't really think it was important," he mumbled.

"You dated her, and you were _engaged_ to her, and she dumped you for Jett Stetson," James said angrily. When Kendall didn't respond he said again, "Didn't she!"

Kendall nodded sadly, still looking at the picture.

James barked out a laugh and he began to walk away from Kendall. He suddenly turned around and pointed at Kendall, "You did this whole thing because you hate Jett Stetson. He apparently cheated on your ex-fiancée and you got pissed, so when Jennifer Moroe, Jett's mistress, suddenly ends up dead, you think that you can let a guilty man go and frame Jett for the murder. Wow, you're…pathetic."

At these accusations, Kendall shot his head up. "I didn't do this because of Jett or Jo or anyone!" he yelled in return. "I investigated this case because I don't think Carlos Garcia murdered Jennifer Moroe! I'm trying to find out the truth here and—"

James interrupted him with another bark of laughter. "Yeah, I was trying to figure out the truth as well. And guess what. I did. Carlos is guilty and Kendall…you're a pathetic and ridiculous person who _really_ needs to get over himself."

Logan watched James and Kendall warily, and for the first time since they started investigating this case, he didn't want to stop his friends from yelling at each other. "_Kendall dated Jo, was engaged to Jo_?" he asked himself.

James looked over at Logan. "He's been leading us on the whole time," he said, throwing a glare at Kendall. "I'm sorry."

Kendall's eyes flashed to Logan. "No, I haven't been leading you on!" he said desperately. "I really do believe that Carlos is innocent! I know I should have told you about Jo earlier but I didn't think it was important, and I didn't want you guys to think that I was just holding a grudge!"

"Too late for that," James muttered under his breath, still glaring at Kendall.

"Please, Logan," Kendall pleaded. "You have to believe me. Even before we started to all investigate this case you thought that Carlos might have been innocent. Please, keep working with me. Please, you have to believe me, you just _have_ to."

With Kendall's pleas, Logan was suddenly thrust into a memory where Carlos Garcia pleaded with him and James to believe him when he said he was innocent. And he knew what he had to do.

Logan took a deep breath and began. "Kendall," he said, "I wish you told us this sooner."

Kendall's face fell and James' expression lost a little bit of the anger in favor of a more triumphant look. However, this quickly changed when Logan continued.

"I wish you had told us sooner," Logan repeated, "but even though he didn't, I still am not convinced that Carlos Garcia killed Jennifer Moroe. I want to keep investigating this further."

Upon the finality in Logan's tone, James knew that there was no convincing him otherwise. He shook his head sadly. "And here I thought we were partners, that we listened to each other and believed each other," James said.

"James," Logan tried to intervene, but James continued.

"I listened to you and I did what you asked me to do, but when I ask you to trust me…you don't. So…so I guess I'll see you around," James said and quickly walked out of the apartment.

"James," Logan said helplessly, looking at the closed front door James had just left from.

"Logan, I'm sorry," Kendal started to say before Logan put up his hand to stop him.

Logan took a deep breath. "Let's just keep investigating this case. The trial is on Thursday, that's four days away. I'll worry about James later."

Later that evening, Logan's phone rang.

"Hello?" Logan asked when he answered the phone.

"Hello, is this Detective Logan Mitchell?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Yes, this is he, how may I help you?" Logan responded in his default "polite phone talk."

"This is Stephanie King with the Baltimore Courthouse. I just wanted to inform you that the hearing for Carlos Garcia is going to be moved up from Thursday morning to Tuesday afternoon at 4:30PM."

"What, why?" Logan asked. With this new scheduling, the time crunch they were in to find out the truth about what happened to Jennifer Moroe was even shorter.

"A witness for the prosecution is unable to attend a Thursday hearing because he will be going out of the country, so the judge agreed to move up the case date," Stephanie replied.

"A witness for the prosecution?" Logan asked confused. Upon hearing this, and the distressed tone in Logan's voice, Kendall looked up. When Logan looked at Kendall, silently questioning who the witness for the prosecution was, Kendall shrugged.

"_I'm the lawyer, I'm the prosecutor_," Kendall thought to himself. "_Any witnesses should come to me…_"

"Yes," Stephanie responded affirmatively to Logan's question. "The witness is…hold on, let me find the correct file. Okay, the witness just came forth today and says that he saw Carlos Garcia running from Jennifer Moroe's apartment early on Wednesday morning. He had blood on his hands and on his shirt. The witness is Jett Stetson."

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><p><strong>Hehehe, a bit of a twist...maybe? Hahah I hope you enjoyed!<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello, lovely readers! Thank you for reviewing and reading! I hope that you like this chapter and I hope you all have a marvelous day!**

**Enjoy and please review!**

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><p>Jett Stetson. A mysterious witness shows up out of nowhere, gets the case moved up two days, and has testimony that proves Carlos Garcia guilty of Jennifer Moroe's murder.<p>

"I don't buy it," Kendall said, defiance flaring up in his eyes. "No way he saw Carlos Garcia run out of Jennifer Moroe's apartment. He's our number one suspect, and yet here he is saying that he's a witness for the prosecution? As if he's on our side," Kendall growled under his breath.

"Something's going on here," Logan said, watching Kendall pace frantically in front of him. "If Jett saw Carlos run out of Jennifer's apartment, then why didn't he tell me and James when we questioned him a few days ago?"

Kendall stopped pacing and his eyes were wide with excitement. "Exactly! Why would he not tell you! Maybe Carlos was right, maybe _we're_ right!" he said anxiously.

"Whoa, Kendall, calm down," Logan said, although he was having trouble keeping his own excitement levels down as his brain subconsciously connected the dots on the case. "We have to think about this. Okay, we…okay so we know that Jennifer and Jett dated. Jennifer called Carlos to her apartment because she broke up with Jett and he was calling her and intimidating her. Okay, so Jennifer broke up with Jett and won't talk to him so he kills her?" Logan's excitement began to die away. "That's not much of a motive, is it?"

"No, no, he _has_ to have done it!" Kendall said, upset that Logan was beginning to doubt their new theory. "Jett's a control freak, likes to have everything his way. He's probably used to breaking up with girls, not having the girls break up with him. You said that they went to a club at 1:00 on Wednesday morning. Maybe he got drunk and the alcohol intensified his anger and blurred his reason and, in a rage, he killed Jennifer Moroe? I've seen a case like that before."

"I don't know," Logan said, standing up and moving to grab his coat. "But I'm going to find out. Are you coming?" he asked Kendall as got his car keys.

Kendall grinned and grabbed his coat as well, running after Logan who was already out the door.

* * *

><p>James didn't even know what to think. He was angry and hurt and betrayed…but he didn't hate Logan. He hated Kendall, that was for sure, but he couldn't hate Logan. He was his partner, and had been there for James whenever he needed him since they became partners. Sure, they had varying views on things, especially the Carlos Garcia case, but he couldn't hate him. No matter how hard he tried.<p>

It was Monday morning. He had gotten a call saying that the case was moved up to tomorrow afternoon because the prosecution had a new witness. "_Good luck with that, Kendall_," he thought bitterly, thinking that Kendall had found a witness and not knowing that the witness was actually Jett Stetson.

It was early Monday morning, and he and Logan had been given the day off to prepare for their trial tomorrow. James didn't really have to prepare; he knew how he had arrested Carlos Garcia and how Carlos was guilty. So here he was, lying in his bed wondering what he was going to do that day.

James became lost in his thoughts when a knot started to grow in his stomach. At first it was small and he ignored it, but then as time went by, the knot got bigger and bigger, and his sudden anxiety grew.

He used to get this feeling all the time when he thought he left his backpack or his lunchbox on the bus when he was a kid. And he also got like this when he was in high school and his teacher was handing back tests that he wasn't sure if he did well on. And he used to get it every time he heard the footsteps outside of his room in California creak when Dominic wanted his "company."

James sat up in bed and quickly showered and got dressed. He didn't want to think about where he was going, because he knew his rational mind would tell him to stop, and tell him to take advantage of his day off and to not do work. But he knew he had to do this. He thought that Carlos Garcia was guilty, but he needed to make sure. He needed to talk to Carlos again.

He got in his car and arrived at the prison where Carlos was being held quicker than he thought he would. He approached the guards, and because he was one of the officers who arrested Carlos, he was allowed to see him.

* * *

><p>Carlos sat quietly in his cell. He had asked the prison guards if he could be placed in solitary confinement, because he had seen enough movies to know what happened in prison to guys like him. Surprisingly, the prison guards took pity on him and moved him to solitary only until after his hearing. Should he be found guilty, which the guards heard was imminent, then he would have to be moved to general lockup.<p>

He rarely spoke to anyone, except for a quiet "Thank you" here and there to the prison guards when they gave him food or opened his cell door for him. And even when the guards brought him food, he didn't eat it. It didn't taste that good to begin with, and he also had a bad taste in his mouth when he thought about his impending doom.

Carlos was wiping a stray tear that had snuck through his stoic resolve when his cell door opened. It was strange and unexpected because it wasn't meal time and he never got any visitors.

"There's someone here to see you," the guard who opened the door said.

Carlos stood up and was led to the meeting room, where, at a table in the corner of the room, the tall detective who arrested him was waiting.

The guard led Carlos over to the table and sat him down. He then locked Carlos' handcuffs to a metal ring attached to the table so that he couldn't attack James or try to escape. "_Not that I would_…" Carlos thought to himself forlornly.

He was looking down at his hands, waiting for the detective to address him. However, time passed and James did not yet say a word. Carlos looked up and made eye contact with James. And in James' eyes and facial expression he saw concern, confusion, and anger.

"Hi, Detective…" Carlos started, not sure what he should say. After all, he wasn't the one to call this meeting.

"James," the detective responded. "I'm James Diamond, but you can call me James."

Carlos nodded and waited for James to say what he had come here to say.

"Carlos," James started. He had been thinking about what he should say to Carlos since he decided he was going to see him, but everything he had thought was gone the second he saw the man in front of him. Carlos was once a happy looking guy with a clean apartment in a bad neighborhood. Now he was thinner and the laugh lines on his face were replaced by worry lines. James had been ready to yell at Carlos to just admit to killing Jennifer so that he and Logan could move on as partners, so that James could go to sleep at night without worrying that he had arrested the wrong man. But now, seeing Carlos Garcia looking so completely and utterly broken…James didn't know what to think anymore, let alone know what to say.

"Carlos," he tried again. "Please. I want to believe you. I really want to believe that you didn't kill Jennifer Moroe. And I don't really know why I want to believe you, because all of the evidence points straight at you, but I do. Maybe it's my partner and his stupid friend's theories preventing me from thinking rationally or something, but please. Tell me how you couldn't have killed Jennifer."

Carlos was taken aback. He had definitely not expected James to say that. But he wasn't just going to let this opportunity get away from him. "I didn't kill her," he said. "I couldn't have killed her because I loved her. I _loved_ her. There is no way that I could have just—"

"You already said that!" James interrupted, resting his elbows on the table before him. "I know that you loved her. Just as I know that you lied to me and my partner. Just as I know that you tried to escape from police custody. I know what you already told me, just give me something I can work with!"

Carlos was silent. He had told them everything before. "_What more do they want from me_?" he asked himself.

"Did you find her boyfriend?" Carlos asked quietly.

James nodded, his patience running thin. "Yes, and he has an alibi." When Carlos didn't saying anything, James rubbed his face tiredly. "So you don't have anything else?" he asked.

Carlos looked down at his hands again and shook his head. "No," he answered quietly. He saw James motion over for a prison guard to take him back to his cell. The guard leaned forward to unlock his handcuffs from the table and James began walking away towards the exit that Carlos was now certain he would never see.

And then he saw it.

"Wait!" he yelled, and the prison guard stopped and pulled back.

James came back, a curious expression on his face. "What is it?" he asked, frowning.

"I remember, I remember!" Carlos said, his hands shaking from the sudden realization and rush of adrenaline.

James nodded to the guard, and he took his position back at the table as the guard moved back to the door.

"What do you remember?" James asked, curiosity the only emotion strong enough to overcome his excitement and his anxiousness as he waited for Carlos to explain.

"I completely forgot about it," Carlos rambled quickly. "I mean, there was so much going on, so many things happened that it makes sense that I forgot it, but the guard had one too and it made me remember!"

"Remember what?" James asked quickly.

Carlos took a deep breath and smiled at James. "The guard," he said, gesturing to the guard by the door, "has a tattoo."

James frowned, wondering how a tattoo could cause such a rush of excitement. "And that is so amazing because…?" James wondered aloud to Carlos.

"That tattoo," Carlos said excitedly, unable to stop his smile, "reminded me that the men who crashed their car into the police car, the ones who helped me escape custody, both had tattoos on their wrists. I saw them when they reached down to unlock my handcuffs."

"What did the tattoos look like?" James asked, a distant memory tugging at the back of his mind.

"They both had the same one," Carlos answered quickly. "It was a blue jay, and they both had one of their left wrists."

"Was there anything else on the tattoo?" James asked, that distant memory now being joined by a thought that maybe he had seen a tattoo like that before.

Carlos thought for a minute. "Yeah…yeah I think there were initials, or letters or something. I don't remember what they were, but it looked like script of some sort."

James nodded, his head spinning with this new information. He had come across tattoos before. Some mob or mafia families made their associates get tattoos so that everyone would know who they worked for, who their lives belonged to. Most of these associates got tattoos where the public wouldn't see them, on their back or arms or legs. But the most loyal mafia members, the ones who would do everything for their boss, including lie to the police, tattooed their hands, wrists, faces, or necks with a sign that their boss chose to indicate that they belonged to him.

Dominic had all of his associates get one, and had wanted James to get one, get a tattoo, too. But luckily he had avoided it for all the time that he was with him. But it seemed that his time with Dominic, though his own personal hell, had proven to be beneficial because it gave him this information.

But it was more than that. A tattoo of a blue jay and scripted letters sounded so familiar. "_Have I seen something like that before_?" James wondered to himself.

"Does that help?" Carlos' hopeful voice interrupted James' thoughts.

"It might," James answered honestly. "I have to go," he said, standing up quickly and motioning the guard to come back over. "I'll look more into that. Good luck tomorrow!" And with that, James was running out the door, his thoughts not completely on reality.

As the guard once again tried to unlock his handcuffs, Carlos finally was able to take a deep breath. He knew he was still in a really bad situation, since he was in prison still and he still had a hearing tomorrow to determine his fate. But for some reason, he felt that James knew what he was doing, and that his future was in good hands.

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><p><strong>I needed to add some Carlos into the story because even though everything revolves around him, he hasn't been in it too much! I hope you liked this chapter, and please review!<strong>


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello, all! Sorry for the wait, but I was sick over the last couple days and in between sleeping and feeling sorry for myself I couldn't update this story. I'm feeling better now though, so all is well and here is the next chapter!**

**I hope you enjoy, and please review!**

* * *

><p>James ran out of the prison and drove as quickly as he could to the precinct. As soon as he arrived his ran to the Organized Crime Department and asked one of the officers if he knew of any suspected mafia crime family in Baltimore who had tattoos on their wrists of a blue jay with maybe initials or some sort of script next to it.<p>

The officer went to his computer and pulled up a database of the different families and groups who were suspected of being involved with organized crime. When the officer narrowed down the selection to tattoos, they found one person to have a tattoo matching the description of blue jay.

It was a man by the name of Arthur Griffin who had been arrested more than twenty years ago and was suspected of being the head of the mafia. There wasn't any viable proof to confirm this, however, and had since been released. He had stayed under the radar since his release, and was trying to establish his own company.

"This guy seems to have been out of the game for a while," the officer said skeptically. "Are you sure you're looking for that kind of tattoo?"

"I have to cover all bases," James said quickly and ran out of the office, throwing a hasty "Thank you!" to the officer.

James located Arthur Griffin and, using his badge for emphasis, immediately ordered a private meeting right away. Finally, James was going to get some answers that might actually help prove what really happened early Wednesday morning to poor Jennifer Moroe.

* * *

><p>Logan and Kendall were driving to Jett Stetson's apartment in silence, both too caught up in their thoughts to even consider thinking that the quietness was awkward.<p>

Suddenly Kendall broke the silence. "Pull over!" he ordered, already unbuckling his seatbelt and getting ready to open the car door before Logan had a chance to pull off to the side of the road.

When the car came to a halt, Kendall jumped out and ran towards a blonde young woman walking down the street. Logan watched Kendall and when he saw the girl, he immediately recognized her from the picture James had angrily showed them the other day, and he quickly got out of the car. It was Jo Taylor.

"Kendall, what are you doing? What are you talking about?" Jo asked, confused as Kendall started to talk quickly at her.

"Kendall," Logan said, giving him a glance that told him to calm down. "Hi, Ms. Taylor, I'm Detective Logan Mitchell with the Baltimore Police Department. I'm investigating a murder, the murder of Jennifer Moroe—"

"Jennifer's dead?" Jo asked suddenly, tears quickly springing in her eyes.

"Uh, yes," Logan said awkwardly. "I'm sorry for telling you so rudely, but it's been all over the news and I assumed that you had heard."

"No, it's all right," Jo said, quickly wiping at her tears. "I was at a spa with my sister since last Monday and I just got back today. The spa's theme is isolation from outside stressors so…yeah, I just didn't know." The tears began to well up in her eyes again. "How did she die?"

"She was murdered, Jo," Kendall answered gently. "But I didn't know you were friends with her…how did you know her?"

Jo took a calming breath in hopes of getting her tears to stop flowing. "Well, I wasn't really friends with her, but I knew her. She was friends with Je…with my boyfriend. She used to come over all the time until they got in a fight like two weeks ago about her going through his things, or something. She called me out of the blue before I left for the spa to ask me to have lunch with her…I was supposed to meet up with her tomorrow…"

With this revelation, Jo started to cry again. She may not have known Jennifer very well, but just the fact someone that Jo was associated with was dead made her upset.

Kendall and Logan exchanged a look. "She was just a friend?" Logan asked trying to be as sympathetic and kind as possible.

"Yeah," Jo said shocked at the question. However when she caught the looks that both Kendall and Logan had on their faces, her face fell and the shock melted off and was replaced with a sad and slightly embarrassed expression. "I always thought that maybe he was…they were…but then relationships are built on trust, right?" she asked uncertainly, with a blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Jo," Kendall started gently, not wanted to upset his former fiancée any further. "Why were you going to lunch with her if you weren't friends?"

Jo unsuccessfully tried to wipe the tears from her eyes again. "I'm not entirely sure," Jo answered. "She said she wanted to tell me something but she didn't say what it was about." Then Jo began to cry again.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Logan said, a bit uncomfortably as Jo's eyes filled with more tears. "We should…go," he said hesitantly as he pulled at Kendall's arm to get him back in his car so that they could question Jett.

Kendall looked reluctantly at Jo bravely trying to wipe away her tears and sadness. But he let himself be pulled away from the girl who broke his heart, but whom he had never stopped loving.

They were almost at the car when Logan suddenly stopped and ran back to Jo.

Kendall followed quickly, confused at Logan's actions, and Jo looked up with confusion matching Kendall's when she saw Logan in front of her again.

"When did you go to the spa?" Logan asked her quickly.

Jo looked over at Kendall in confusion at the randomness of Logan's question. "I just got back today," she answered, "but I had been there since last Monday."

"Do you have proof of this?" Logan asked excitedly.

Jo nodded and searched around her purse for a little until she retrieved the confirmation reservation card that timed and dated every activity that she did while at the spa. And sure enough, there were activities that were marked on every day since last Monday, indicating that Jo had, indeed, been at the spa since last Monday.

But Logan just had to be sure… "So last Tuesday night," Logan began to ask, "you didn't go to an Opera?"

Jo frowned, now completely lost. "No," she answered slowly. "Why would you think that I went to an Opera last Tuesday?"

"Oh, uh, no reason," Logan answered quickly and ran back to his car, calling farewell to Jo and at Kendall to follow him.

"Bye, Jo," Kendall said softly, and then he ran after Logan.

"What was that about?" Kendall asked as soon as he was in the car.

Logan was smiling and tapping his hands anxiously on the steering wheel. "We got him," Logan said. "We got him, we got Jett."

"What?" Kendall asked incredulously. "How? When?"

"Jett said that he took Jo to the Opera on Tuesday night and was with her all Wednesday morning. He said that he wouldn't have gone to the Opera if it weren't for Jo because it was for her birthday." He glanced over at Kendall but then moved his eyes back to the road. "But Jo wasn't here on Tuesday. She was at some spa getting some weird spa things done."

"So Jett lied," Kendall concluded, developing a smile as big as Logan's.

They finally got the break that they had been looking for.

* * *

><p>"What do you want from me?" Arthur Griffin asked James, obviously annoyed. "I haven't been involved in anything illegal for more than twenty years, but none of you cops seem to ever believe that. You're just ridiculous—"<p>

"Before you go insulting me," James said, interrupting Griffin's tirade. "I think you should know that I am not here to arrest you or bring you in for questioning. I just want to ask you a few questions."

Griffin looked uncertainly at James. "Questions about what?" he asked.

"About that," James responded simply, pointing at Griffin's blue jay tattoo.

"Oh," Griffin replied quietly. "What do you want to know?"

James asked Arthur Griffin where he had gotten the tattoo, which Griffin confirmed to be a mafia family he had once been involved in. The family had required all associates and friends of the family to get tattoos of a blue jay on their wrists to prove their utmost and permanent loyalty to the family.

"I know that the family is under new management, so to speak, but he still requires his associates to get this same tattoo," Griffin explained.

"Who runs the operations now?" James asked, although in the back of his mind he had a feeling he already knew who it was.

Griffin took a deep breath. "You know, I may be out of the life of organized crime now, but telling you something like this could really hurt me," he said. He paused but then continued. "But trying to start my own business isn't the safest career move ever. And I'm not afraid to take risks."

Griffin then told James what he really should have known all along.

* * *

><p>Logan and Kendall could barely contain their excitement when they arrived at Jett Stetson's apartment. Both of them had known that Carlos Garcia couldn't be guilty. But the evidence and how Carlos acted worked against them in finding out the truth. But finally, they had found the lie, and they were about to bring a possible murderer to justice.<p>

"Detective Mitchell, how nice to see you again," Jett said when he answered the door in a faux polite tone. He then looked at Kendall and both shock and amusement crossed his face. "And Mr. Knight, how are things going with you lately? Find any nice lady friends to be with so you're not so pathetic and lonely?"

Logan saw Kendall clench his jaw and fists in anger and quickly intervened. "Mr. Stetson," he said, "we would like to ask you a few questions regarding the Jennifer Moroe case."

"Ah, yes, of course," Jett replied enthusiastically. "I assume you heard that I am now acting as a witness for you. So we're all on the same team!"

"Uh, yeah," Logan answered uncertainly, deciding for now to keep from Jett that he was actually their new number one suspect in the murder of Jennifer Moroe. "Why didn't you tell me and Detective Diamond that you had seen Carlos Garcia running from Jennifer Moroe's apartment, covered in blood, on the morning she was killed?"

"Well to be honest with you," Jett answered, "I completely forgot. You see my girlfriend, _Jo Taylor_," he said, enunciating Jo's name in hopes of angering Kendall even more, "lives in the same apartment complex as Jennifer. So after we went clubbing we went back to her place to…have a little fun, if you know what I mean." At this, Kendall's face turned red with anger and Jett winked suggestively. "And when I tried to sneak out early that morning, I saw him run by me. I didn't think anything of it until I realized that all of that red wasn't paint and it was probably blood."

"But," Logan said, hoping to keep the conversation a little more on trapping Jett in a lie and little less on innuendos, "you told me a few days ago that after you went clubbing you returned here."

"Did I say that?" Jett asked, dramatically pulling on a "thinking face." "Oops," he said carelessly. "I meant to say we went back home, and home could either be here or her place. I apologize for confusing you."

Logan nodded, ignoring the condescending tone Jett always seemed to have when he addressed him. "So you went to the Opera on Tuesday and you were with Jo until early Wednesday morning?"

"Yes," Jett answered confidently. "Now is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes," Logan said, trying to maintain composure when all he really wanted to do was explode with excitement over the fact that they had Jett trapped in his own lies. "How could you have been with Jo on Tuesday and Wednesday if she was at a spa since last Monday until today?"

Jett looked shocked, but he quickly tried to compose himself. He only half succeeded though, as his face transformed from shocked to startled. "What?" he tried to ask casually.

"He said," Kendall spoke up, his eyes show the smile that he was trying to rein in, "how could you have been with Jo if she wasn't even here in Baltimore at the time."

"I…I don't…I went to the spa to see her," Jett said quickly. "We went to the Opera there, where she was, and then drove back here for the night. Then I snuck out of her apartment, saw Carlos Garcia, and one of my friends drove her back to the spa."

Jett's story was implausible and his resolve was cracking. His once arrogant and confident face now showed signs of worry and fear. He was caught, and he knew it.

"Okay," Logan said simply as he stood up. "We will be in touch." And with that he left, with a confused Kendall following.

When they exited the apartment, Kendall rounded on Logan. "What the heck? Logan, we had him! Why did we just leave?"

Logan shot an amused grin at Kendall. "Dude, calm down. We can't arrest him until we have an arrest warrant on file. I'm going to call James to tell him to process it and then we're going to go back in and arrest him."

"Oh," Kendall said. Now that he thought about it, they would need an arrest warrant for Jett Stetson before they could actually arrest him.

Logan dialed Speed Dial number 2 and put the phone to his ear. As he waited for James to pick up, he looked over at Kendall. "And here I thought you were a lawyer. A lawyer would know all of the lovely semantics that are included in police work."

Logan grinned at Kendall as Kendall rolled his eyes. Logan noticed that he didn't hear any ringing and saw that he didn't have much service in front of Jett's apartment door, so he walked down the hallway a bit until he heard ringing on the phone line.

"Hello?" Logan was a little surprised but really happy that James had answered his call instead of ignoring it. However, before he could say anything to his partner, he felt someone grab him from behind and push a rag over his mouth and nose. Logan dropped his phone in surprise and struggled against the person holding him. No matter how much Logan fought, he was no match for the big man behind him, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

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><p><strong>Okay, first, I don't know if that thing with arrest warrants is true, but let's just pretend that it is. :) And second, did you like this chapter? I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger, so I hope that's fun! Thank you to all of you who have read, and all of you who are still reading. I really appreciate all of your support! Thank you!<strong>


	17. Chapter 17

**Once again I apologize for the wait! I hope you enjoy this chapter! And just a quick warning, there is a curse word in this chapter. I'm not sure if I have to tell you this, since the story is already rated T, but I'm not much of a curse-er so I thought I should just let you know.**

**So anyway, thanks to all who reviewed, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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><p>James could barely contain his excitement. Arthur Griffin had confirmed what he really should have known all along, that Jett Stetson was the new leader of the mafia family whose associates were involved in breaking Carlos Garcia out of police custody.<p>

James knew all about organized crime and mob and mafia families from his work in Chicago before he became a detective and from his…experience…with Dominic. He knew that the only reason people associated with the mafia would do _anything_ was because their boss ordered them to.

"_So Jett ordered the two men with the tattoos to break Carlos out of police custody to make him seem guilty_?" James asked himself. And it made sense. Sure, it may be a bit strange for someone to break someone else out of prison so that they seemed guiltier, but it really made sense. The reason that Carlos Garcia was arrested for the murder of Jennifer Moroe was because of evidence that any good defense attorney could argue is circumstantial. However, the fact that Carlos tried to flee police custody further cemented his guilt. Jett Stetson was a criminal mastermind.

James was in his car on his way to the precinct to process an arrest warrant for Jett Stetson. He was thinking about calling Logan to tell him about what he had heard from Arthur Griffin when his phone rang.

When he saw that Logan was calling him, he almost laughed at the irony.

"Hello?" he answered, wondering what Logan was going to tell him. However, he didn't hear Logan's voice on the other end of the line. He didn't hear any voices. "Hello?" he asked again, listening closely.

"_Maybe he butt-dialed me again_…" he thought to himself, but he didn't really believe that. The knot in his stomach was making itself known again.

"Logan, hello?" he asked into the phone again. And then he heard it. It was quiet and muffled. Maybe it was white noise, or the sound of Logan's phone being in his pocket if he had accidently butt-dialed him. But he wasn't sure. And then the line went dead and James didn't know what to think.

"_Should I be concerned_?" he asked himself. "_Or maybe annoyed that Logan keeps butt-dialing me_?"

He didn't know what to think, but he was at the precinct now and he needed to get an arrest warrant in the system and processed. Logan always said that if there was enough evidence against a person, and that person maybe was likely to be a flight risk, then just sending in the request for an arrest warrant was enough.

However, all James had was the word of a former convict saying that Jett Stetson was the boss of the mafia family who had broken Carlos out of police custody. That may not be enough evidence, so he needed to wait for the warrant to come through before he could arrest Jett. And anyway, Jett was testifying in court tomorrow, so it was unlikely that he was a flight risk until after the trial. So what could go wrong in waiting one more day before going to arrest Jett Stetson?

So James went to sleep at his desk at the precinct that night, dreaming about blue jays and mysterious butt-dialing phone calls.

* * *

><p>Kendall woke up and was aware of throbbing in his head and coldness. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times, wondering what he had eaten last night that caused him to have a dream about sitting in an igloo.<p>

And then he realized he wasn't dreaming…and he remembered. He and Logan had been at Jett Stetson's house, waiting for Logan to call James to get an arrest warrant in the system, when a big guy came out of nowhere and hit him on the head with some metal object.

"Jett Stetson's bodyguard, in the hallway, with the weird metal object," he mumbled to himself, reminiscing about his sister, Katie's, favorite board game, Clue.

Then Kendall remembered Logan. "Logan!" he whisper-yelled. He looked around and saw another figure lying on the ground on the other side of the…_where were they_?

As Kendall crawled over to Logan, not trusting himself to be able to walk over to his friend with a head injury that was already causing him dizziness, Logan began to move.

"Uh," Logan groaned as he sat up, a hand slowly going to his head. He looked up and saw Kendall. "What happened?" he asked.

"I was jumped from behind and hit with something," Kendall answered, his hand subconsciously going to where the metal object had hit him.

"Don't touch it," Logan mumbled, grabbing Kendall's wrist. "You could infect it and then we'd be in a lot of trouble if we don't get to a hospital."

"What happened to you?" Kendall asked his friend.

"Uh," Logan thought, closing his eyes and gently massaging his head, which ached as a result of being drugged. "Someone came up behind up and got me with chloroform, or something like that." He then looked around at their surroundings. "Are we in a meat freezer?" he asked incredulously.

"Maybe," Kendall shrugged. "I've never been in a meat freezer before."

Logan was about to make fun of Kendall in some way or another, when suddenly the door to the freezer opened. And out stepped Jett Stetson.

"Hello, boys," Jett said, smiling wickedly.

"Jett, what are you doing?" Kendall asked from his position on the ground, not even attempting to stand up, fearing that dizziness from his head injury would cause him to show weakness. And he was _not_ about to show Jett Stetson weakness.

"Why, _Kendall_, I'm only doing what any person in my position would be doing," he answered Kendall like he was talking to a child. "You two came into my apartment asking me questions that made me uncomfortable, so I had to get you out of the way. The only ones at fault are the two of you."

"You can't," Logan said, then took a deep breath, "can't be serious."

Kendall glanced quizzically at Logan after he interrupted himself to breathe, but then looked back at Jett. "What are you planning on doing?" Kendall asked directly but warily. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what Jett was thinking.

"As I said," Jett shrugged nonchalantly. "The two of you asked too many questions, and I needed to protect myself. So I'm leaving you here so that you don't ruin everything that I've worked for."

"Everything that you've worked for?" Kendall asked, failing to keep the confusion out of his voice. "You've dated multiple women at a time and then when one of them broke up with you you killed her out of jealousy. What have you worked for?"

Jett laughed. "That's not why I killed her," he responded, a smug smile appearing on his face.

"Then," Logan started to say again, only to take another breath before continuing. "Why did you kill Jennifer Moroe?"

Jett laughed again. "Do you really think I'm going to tell _you_?" he asked, leaning forward to look condescendingly at Logan. Then he straightened up. "Well, I'm off to prepare for the hearing tomorrow. So have a nice night gentlemen."

Jett grinned wickedly and began to walk out of the freezing environment when Kendall's voice stopped him. "You're not just going to leave us in here!" Kendall stated rather than questioned anxiously.

Jett turned around, his grin still dripping with evilness and malice. "Yes I am," he said, his voice sounding low and primal. "And I will leave you in here as long as I want. Because you see, Kendall Knight, I am not about to have my life ruined by the guy who was too weak to keep his fiancée and some _pig_," Jett said, referring to Logan's career in law enforcement.

"We have places to be!" Kendall yelled when Jett once again made to leave the freezer. "People will come looking for us. Logan's partner will realize that we're missing. Your plan _sucks_."

Jett laughed again. "_That laugh is really getting old_," Kendall thought to himself.

"Thank you for pointing that out to me, Kendall!" Jett said with mock thankfulness and sincerity. He then pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and began to text someone. Kendall, upon further inspection, realized that it was his own cell phone.

"_He must have taken it while I was unconscious_," Kendall thought to himself angrily.

After Jett finished texting someone, he looked at Logan. "And regarding your partner," he said, "I know that the two of you have had a falling out. In fact, one of my contacts within the police department has informed me that he has already put in a request to be transferred elsewhere. So no one is looking for you," Jett lied.

The way Jett annunciated each word sent shivers up and down Kendall's spine and he felt his heart clench in fear. But he tried to keep his face devoid of emotion. No matter what, he still couldn't show Jett weakness.

Before either Logan or Kendall could vocally respond in any way to Jett's comment about James, Kendall's phone beeped in Jett's hand, signaling a text message had just come in.

Jett looked at the phone and his face broke into another evil smile. "And Kendall," he said still smiling, "no one will be looking for you either. I just texted the Assistant District Attorney, Kelly Wainwright, to let her know that you have laryngitis and will not be able to make the Carlos Garcia hearing tomorrow afternoon, but the case is _open_ and _shut_. She just responded that she will schedule another prosecutor and she hopes you feel better soon! How sweet," Jett said, and then showed Kendall and Logan the text conversation.

"You spelled laryngitis incorrectly," Logan said quietly.

Jett frowned and brought the phone back to him so that he could read the message. "No, I didn't," he said argumentatively.

"Yeah, you did," Logan responded calmly. "Laryngitis has a 'y' and ends in an 'is.' It's L-A-R-Y-N-G-I-T-I-S not L-A-R-I-N-G-I-T-U-S, moron."

Jett looked angrily at the phone and then at Logan before he stormed out of the freezer and slammed the door behind him.

Logan looked over at Kendall. "Just thought he should know," Logan said shrugging.

Kendall smiled and was about to laugh and respond with another insult towards Jett when suddenly the freezer door slammed open again. Jett came in with a bucket in his hands and before Kendall or Logan could react, he poured the cold water that had been inside the bucket all over Logan.

Logan gasped at the coldness that then surrounded him. "_And I thought it was cold before_," he thought to himself as he tried to not show Jett how uncomfortable he then was.

Kendall looked at Logan, in shock at Jett's cruelty. "You bastard!" he yelled at Jett as he scrambled over to Logan, hoping that there was _something_ that he could do to help his friend.

"That's what you get for correcting me!" Jett bellowed at Logan, his eyes flashing and his chest heaving in anger.

"E-ever cons-sider anger ma-nagement classes, J-Jett?" Logan asked, barely being able to contain his shivering and stuttering.

Jett looked smugly at Logan and tossed the bucket aside in the freezer, arrogance suddenly replacing anger. "And anyway," he said shrugging. "It was Kendall who spelled it wrong. Not me. It was his phone after all."

And with that, Jett left Kendall and Logan in the large freezer to die.

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><p><strong>Ooooo, drama! I hope you like it! Please review :)<strong>


	18. Chapter 18

**Hello, all! Thank you for all of your kind reviews. I really appreciate all of the support you have given me while writing this story. This next chapter is a little short, but I hope you like it nonetheless!**

**Enjoy and please review! Have a great day!**

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><p>Tuesday morning was not a good morning for James Diamond. He woke up to find that he was stiff from falling asleep on top of his desk. He also found out around 10:00 that morning that his request for an arrest warrant had not been approved, and thus he could not arrest Jett Stetson. And worst of all, it was almost 11:30AM and Logan had not shown up for work. And he was not answering his cell phone.<p>

Normally James wouldn't worry. It was the day of the Carlos Garcia hearing, and James was sure that Logan and Kendall were still trying to find information to clear Carlos' name. However, Logan was not picking up his cell phone or his home phone.

James was concerned and upon finding that Logan's car wasn't at his apartment, he looked up Kendall's address and went to see if maybe he and Logan had just changed environments.

When he arrived at Kendall's home, he was surprised to find Jo Taylor there as well.

"Ms. Taylor?" James asked cautiously. He recognized Jo from her Facebook pictures, but he knew that she did not know him.

Jo looked up at James and frowned in confusion. But then she saw his detective's badge clipped to his belt and her face flooded with relief.

"Oh, Detective!" she said quickly. "I'm so glad you're here. I think my fian—I mean _friend_ is missing. Wait, how do you know my name?"

"I'm James Diamond and I'm investigating the murder of Jennifer Moroe. Your boyfriend's name, Jett Stetson, came up in our investigations," James responded vaguely.

Jo seemed to accept this explanation and before James could continue she said "I think my friend, Kendall Knight is missing."

"Okay," James said, his heart beginning to beat faster in concern. "Why do you think he's missing?"

"Well yesterday he talked to me, he and another detective, Logan something, talked to me and asked me where I had been last Tuesday night. The detective thought I had been to an Opera but I had been at a spa so I told him that. Then later, when I got back to my boyfriend's apartment he told me that if anyone asked me where I was last Tuesday to tell them that I was at an Opera. And I was going to talk to Kendall to ask him what all of this was about but he's not here! And…and I just thought that maybe…maybe my boyfriend may have hurt him or something," she said, her voice sounding resigned as if she finally was admitting to herself that Jett Stetson was not a good person.

James didn't say anything but his thoughts went a mile a minute, putting the pieces together. "_Jo wasn't with Jett last Tuesday. Jett doesn't have an alibi because all of his 'entourage' are part of his mafia family and are willing to do everything for him, including lying to the police. Logan and Kendall must have approached him…and now they were missing. But Logan called me! What if he was calling me for help and I just assumed he had accidently called me_?"

These thoughts swirled around in James' head faster than lightning, and he almost forgot that Jo was still in front of him. "Detective Diamond?" she asked cautiously.

James looked up at her and he knew. Jett had Kendall and Logan. He didn't have any hard proof, any physical evidence, but he knew.

"Jo," he said slowly, not wanting to frighten her. "I think that Jett may have taken Kendall and Logan, or hurt them in some way." Jo looked at him in fear. "And I need your help. Do you know where he would have taken them, or if he's done anything like this before?"

"Done anything like this before?" Jo asked hysterically. "No, I don't know if he's done anything like this before! I would have called the police if I thought Jett was kidnapping or killing anyone!" She then burst into tears and James did his best to comfort her and get any information he could from her.

"Please, Jo," he said softly. "I think that Kendall and my partner, Logan, the detective you met, asked Jett too many questions regarding the death of Jennifer Moroe and they didn't know what they were getting into. I think that he may have taken them somewhere."

"Do you think he killed them?" Jo asked, still crying but composing herself enough to interrupt what James was going to say next.

James took a deep breath. "Jett…Jett is involved in something that I don't think you know about." Upon Jo's confused and questioning look he continued. "Jett is the boss of a large mafia family in Baltimore. I think he plans on killing Kendall and Logan, but I don't think he's done it yet."

Jo was pale and felt faint, but she managed to ask "Why don't you think he's killed them?"

"Well," James began, "I think that Jett plans to make sure that Carlos Garcia is found guilty this afternoon for murdering Jennifer Moroe, a crime that Jett committed. And I think he knew that Kendall and Logan were investigating this, and he's not going to kill them until he gets the guilty conviction that he wants."

Jo nodded in understanding, but she still couldn't believe that her boyfriend, the man that she really cared about and loved, was capable of killing anyone.

"So do you have _any_ idea of where he could have taken them?" James asked carefully, not wanting to upset Jo any more.

Jo took a deep breath. "Do you think that maybe they're in his apartment, tied up or something?"

James shook his head. "No," James responded. "I think he would want to take them somewhere to suffer, but not necessarily to die."

Jo flinched at this thought and James mentally slapped himself for speaking so procedurally. But this was the only way he could continue to think like a detective and not like a friend, thinking about the fact that Logan could be hurt or suffering. He had to think clearly; he couldn't be blinded by emotions.

Jo thought for a minute before answering James' question. "I can't think of anything," she said forlornly. "But I'll call you if I do."

With that, James gave Jo his cell phone number and warned her not to say anything to Jett. They then parted ways, both concerned about the two young men missing and possibly at the hands of the malicious Jett Stetson.

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><p><strong>I hope you liked it! The next chapter will feature Logan and Kendall, so if you missed them no worries, they're coming back. Anyway, thanks for reading and please review! :)<strong>


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey, everyone! So I have been an awful person for not regularly giving you a chapter a day like I promised I would. I hope you forgive me with this chapter! Thank you all who reviewed and please review again!**

**Enjoy and have a great day!**

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><p>Kendall couldn't help but stare worriedly at Logan. After Jett had left, he helped Logan remove his wet shirt and sweater and gave him his own sweater. While neither of them had good clothing for the coldness that the freezer offered, at least getting Logan into a dry sweater instead of keeping him in his wet clothes improved matters.<p>

But Logan's breathing, on the other hand, did not improve. Before the whole "Logan's wet" fiasco, Kendall had noticed that Logan was having trouble keeping his breath while talking to Jett. But now, being drenched in ice cold water while being trapped in a freezer, made Logan's breathing worse. He took huge, wheezing breaths that caused his shoulders to go up near his ears in a vain effort to get air into his lungs.

"Logan, are you sure you're all right?" Kendall asked again.

Instead of vocally responding, like Logan had done all of the other times when Kendall asked him if he was all right, he just nodded. This caused Kendall to worry even more.

"Logan—" Kendall began before Logan interrupted.

"Kendall," Logan said, pausing to take a breath. "I'm fine…James will find us…and everything will be…okay."

This response did not help settle Kendall's nerves. He knew that Logan had asthma. He had mentioned it in passing once when he needed to use his inhaler at a hockey game they had gone to together. Kendall remembered how Logan had explained to him that cold air made his asthma worse, but it really didn't affect him too much.

Kendall was pulled from his thoughts when he saw Logan pull his legs out of the cross-legged position he had been sitting in and pull his knees closer to his chest, resting his head on his knees.

"Logan!" Kendall said worriedly, rubbing his friend's back in hopes of helping him breathe. Kendall held in a shudder as he felt Logan's struggle to get oxygen into his lungs and heard the wheezing breaths and cracking of his lungs. "Logan…?" he asked warily when Logan didn't say anything.

"I'm…okay. Sitting…like this some-…-times helps," Logan responded slowly.

"Is it helping now?" Kendall asked cautiously. He didn't want Logan to talk, but he needed to make sure that his friend was all right.

Logan moved quickly underneath his hands, and Kendall assumed that he had just shrugged, too breathless to vocally respond.

Kendall continued to rub Logan back soothingly, hoping that he was helping Logan. Then Logan sat up slowly, still wheezing and gasping for air, and looked at Kendall.

A weak smile appeared on Logan's pale face, which Kendall thought might be developing a blue-ish hue, when he looked at Kendall's worried expression. He said, "Don't worry…about the…sounds…I'm making. It's good because…they show that…I'm…still breathing."

Kendall smiled softly at Logan, but couldn't muster much believable happiness. "_I'll be happy when we get out of here_," he thought to himself as he watched Logan rest his head back on his knees.

"_Where are you, James_?' both Logan and Kendall thought silently to themselves.

* * *

><p>"<em>It's 2:00<em>," James thought to himself as he tried to think of something else to do, somewhere else to check.

But he couldn't think of anything. For two hours, he had been looking into Jett Stetson's life, had tried to find someplace where he could possibly be hiding Logan and Kendall. But the possibilities were endless. Jett's record was clean. There weren't any hints or clues that indicated even the most remote possibility as to where the two missing men could be.

James didn't know what to do. The trial was in two and a half hours, and the prosecutor and one of the arresting detectives was missing. He knew Jett Stetson took them, knew that they were hurt or suffering, and he knew he couldn't do anything about it.

He had approached Sergeant Rivers, but unfortunately his boss didn't help him at all.

"_James_," the sergeant had said. "_There is no evidence that Jett Stetson took Mitchell and that other kid. And there's no evidence that he killed Jennifer Moroe. Sure, he lied about being out with his girlfriend, but maybe he was just embarrassed about going to an Opera. How many other people have confirmed his alibi? I don't care if you think they're lying, and I don't care if you think Stetson's a mafia boss. There's no proof, and proof is the only thing that matters. So you find me proof, and I'll let you arrest him_."

James was at a loss and he didn't know what to do. He let his partner down twice now: he didn't trust him about Kendall or about Carlos being innocent, and now he couldn't save him. He had failed.

Suddenly James' cell phone rang. "Hello?" he answered, crossing his fingers and hoping and praying to every god that people believed in that Logan was on the other line.

"Detective Diamond?" Jo Taylor's voice came through the phone.

James tried not to sound too upset. "Oh, hi, Ms. Taylor. Please, call me James. What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I think I might have an idea as to where Kendall and your partner are," she said hesitantly. "But I'm not positive."

James sat up straight in his chair. "What? How? What happened? Where are they?" he asked hurriedly, the words coming out quickly like he had said just one large sentence.

"Well Jett came back late last night and he had pine needles all over his shoes," Jo said slowly. "And I asked him what happened and he just shrugged it off and called it 'business.' So I was a little suspicious because of what you told me— but I didn't say anything, I swear! I didn't act suspicious at all! So anyway, I was suspicious too because there really aren't that many pine trees around where we are and where Jett does business.

"So this morning I went on Jett's computer to try to search for different types of pine trees in the Baltimore area, and I was on the Internet for a while, but I couldn't find anything. So I went to erase my history so Jett wouldn't know what I had been searching on his computer and I saw that he bought this big building last night, like an hour after Kendall and Logan had talked to me. And I looked into it a little more, because it's like two hours away and I didn't want you to go there only to not find anything and to have wasted all of this time. But then I saw that Jett has scheduled it to be knocked down, but he still has electricity going to this building. I thought it was weird, so I called you…" her voice died off, as if realizing that James might not really appreciate this information.

But James was ecstatic, and he had already walked out the precinct door to his car before Jo had even finished. "That's perfect," James said, assuring Jo that this seemed like it could be the place where Kendall and Logan were being held. "What's the address?"

Jo told him the address and he immediately plugged it into his GPS system. He then put on his sirens and drove as quickly as he could to the building that Jo had indicated. He didn't have much time before Carlos Garcia's trial to get to the building, find Kendall and Logan, and get back to the courtroom to prove Carlos innocent and arrest Jett Stetson.

"_Hold on, guys, I'm coming_…"

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><p><strong>Will James get to Kendall and Logan in time? Will Kendall be able to keep Logan breathing? Well you will all find out tomorrow (or maybe later tonight...:) )! Have a great day!<strong>


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello! Here is the next chapter! Thank you all who have reviewed so far, and please review again!**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Logan had given up speaking a while ago and Kendall had given up talking to him. It just wasn't worth it asking Logan if he was all right when they both knew that even a million lies from Logan couldn't cover up the truth.<p>

Kendall had left Logan's side for a little to investigate the room they were in. Was there any way to pry open the locked door? Was there an emergency exit for times when people were locked in the freezer?

Unfortunately, Kendall was not able to find a way out. They were trapped.

Kendall resumed his position back next to Logan, and watched in pain as his friend struggled to breath.

Then suddenly, he remembered. "Logan," Kendall said softly. "Try breathing in for three seconds, then holding for three seconds, then letting out for three seconds. Katie told me she learned it can help asthmatic people recover their breath while suffering from asthma attacks."

As Logan tried to do as Kendall suggested, Kendall helped coach him through. "Okay, in, one, two, three, hold, one, two, three, out, one, two three. In, one, two, three…"

This system continued for a few minutes, and to both captives' shock and surprise, it seemed to be working.

"_Thank you, Katie_," Kendall said to himself as he watching Logan still struggle to breath, but have an easier time of it as he continued the rhythmic breathing system.

Kendall glanced at Logan's watch. "_It's 2:30_," he thought to himself. "_Where is James_?" he asked himself. Then he started to panic. "_What if we never get out of here? What if Carlos Garcia is found guilty and Jett Stetson gets away with murder? What if Jo marries a murderer? What will happen to Katie and my mom if I die_?"

Kendall was pulled from these terrifying thoughts and thrust into the terrifying reality when he heard Logan begin to wheeze again,

"Logan!" he shouted. "What happened? Logan, breath!" he yelled at his friend.

But then the wheezing turned into coughing and choking.

"Logan! LOGAN!" Kendall shouted, but to no avail. His friend couldn't breathe.

No matter what Kendall said or how much he soothingly rubbed Logan's back, Logan was only wheezing. Then, suddenly, his eyes rolled up to the back of his head and he lost consciousness, not breathing.

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><p>James continued to drive as quickly as possible. The building that Jo had indicated was far from the city of Baltimore in Shockeysville, West Virginia. Had this been any other trip, James probably would have taken the time to look at the beautiful scenery he passed in West Virginia, but time was not his friend, and Kendall's and Logan's lives were on the line.<p>

His GPS system told him that, according to his distance from his location, he should arrive at Shockeysville at a little after 4:00. "_Not if I can help it_," he thought to himself and pressed the accelerator on his car a little harder.

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><p>"Come on, Logan, come on!" Kendall yelled breathlessly at his friend who wasn't breathing as he performed CPR. "Come on, please," he whispered as he once again breathed into Logan's mouth. "Please…"<p>

As if on cue, Logan suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, trying to get more air into his lungs.

"Logan!" Kendall shouted, tears springing to his eyes. "Katie told me once that CPR wouldn't really help a person having an asthma attack but it was the only thing I could do and are you okay? Logan, breathe, please don't stop breathing!" Kendall was near hysterical and rambling, so afraid that he had almost lost his friend.

Logan wheezed as he looked at Kendall. His lips were blue-ish in color and his eyes were wide, but he was alive and that's all that mattered to Kendall. Logan nodded slightly at Kendall to indicate that he was all right for now, but Kendall knew he wouldn't last much longer like this.

They needed help.

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><p>It was 3:37 when James pulled into Shockeysville, and it was 3:53 when he arrived at the building that Jett had purchased. He ran inside and began to look frantically for Logan and Kendall. When he confirmed that Jett didn't leave any people behind to guard the captives, James began yelling for the two missing men.<p>

"Logan! Logan! Kendall!" James yelled. He was breathless as he ran and yelled, but he refused to stop, because he had to find them. He needed Logan and Kendall to be there, alive, because if they weren't…James didn't know what else to do.

Suddenly he heard it. At first James thought he had kicked a screw or a nail, or dropped a coin, because all her heard was a quiet metal-on-metal sound. But then he realized that the sound wasn't just a onetime occurrence, but he heard it repeated in a rhythm, as if someone was knocking constantly on a door.

James ran towards the noise. He went down two flights of stairs, and he wondered what miracle had occurred where he had been able to hear this banging on the door two stories above the basement, which was where the sound was coming from.

James reached the basement of the building and followed the sound to a door, which, according to the label outside of the door, led to a meat freezer.

James opened the door.

* * *

><p>Kendall was sitting next to Logan, nearly hugging him to give his friend more warmth, rubbing soothing circles on his back in hopes that it would help with breathing.<p>

Logan didn't move or say anything, but focused all of his attention on drawing oxygen into his lungs and letting it out as slowly as possible. He felt Kendall nudge him sometimes when he would drift off from lack of oxygen and forget to breathe, but Kendall was keeping him alive. It was just up to James to find them now.

Logan heard it first. He had pushed the sound of his breathing, if you could call constantly wheezing and gasping breathing, to the back of his mind, because hearing it usually caused him to panic, and from experience he knew that panicking was never good.

He thought that maybe he was drifting off again, but when he heard it again he knew he wasn't.

Kendall, on the other hand, was entranced by Logan's breathing. He listened to it and loved every second of it, because even though it was painful to hear, it meant that Logan was still breathing. Every time he didn't hear the wheeze coming from Logan's poor and abused lungs, Kendall worried that Logan had stopped breathing again. So he listened intently to his friend's breathing, knowing that if it stopped again, the end result of his valiant CPR efforts may not turn out as well as they had before.

But then he felt Logan stiffen and move slightly. Logan didn't say anything, but just the fact that he had become aware of something made Kendall listen closer to the outside world, rather than just the sound of Logan breathing.

And then he heard it too. Someone was yelling. Kendall couldn't make out what the person was yelling, but there was someone in the same building that they were in. This was their chance at rescue.

Kendall gave Logan a soft pat on his back before he jumped up and ran to the door of the freezer that they were locked in. He started banging the metal of the door, first with his fists, and then, when he noticed his hands were bleeding, he picked up the bucket Jett had discarded and began slamming it into the door.

He hit the door again and again, hoping and wishing and praying that rescue had come and that he and Logan, and even Carlos Garcia, were saved.

Then the door opened, and before him stood a panting James Diamond, the man that Kendall had hated a few days ago, but now loved because he had saved him and Logan.

"James!" Kendall yelled and then ran back to Logan. "We have to call an ambulance, Logan's asthma…he can't breathe!"

James' eyes widened in fear as he joined Kendall and Logan on the ground. "Logan, Logan, are you all right?" James asked concerned for his friend.

Logan nodded weakly and James was horrified to see the blue-ish tint that Logan's already pale face had seemed to have developed. "Carlos," Logan whispered in between wheezes.

James nodded. "All right, let's get you out of here first and then we'll worry about that. As James gently began to pick up his smaller partner, Logan shook his head frantically.

"No," Logan wheezed again. "We need…to get…to the…courthouse…No time."

James nodded and picked up his partner and, followed by Kendall, who grabbed Logan's still wet and icy clothes, ran up the stairs to the car.

The air outside had never felt so good, Kendall determined as he finally escaped his icy prison. He followed James to the car and threw Logan's clothes onto the hood and knelt down by Logan, who James had leaned against the car.

James opened the passenger door and began to rummage through the glove compartment. Moments later, he returned to Logan and Kendall, triumphantly holding an inhaler in his hands.

"All right, Logan," James said, "we may need to do this a few times, but I need you to breathe as deeply as you can, all right? Okay, ready…" James depressed the inhaler and watched as Logan let the medicine enter his system. He did it a few more times until Logan's intense wheezes were replaced by hindered breathing. It wasn't good, but it was an improvement from Logan's prior predicament.

"We have to get to Carlos," Logan said breathlessly when he had less trouble breathing. "Jett's going to run, get away. We need to go now. Before time runs out."

Kendall and James glanced at each other with concern, wondering if they were doing the right thing, when Logan struggled to his feet and opened the back door to the car shakily.

"We have to go," Logan said, struggling a bit more to breath than he had before. "Now!"

James and Kendall quickly ran to the driver and passenger seats.

"We're going but you take this," James thrust the inhaler into Logan's hands, "and no talking until you can breathe one hundred percent again. Got it?"

With that, James turned on the heat, turned on his sirens again, and made his way back to Baltimore in hopes of saving another man's life and putting an evil man away in jail.

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><p><strong>Now it's on to Baltimore to save Carlos! Can they do it? Thanks for reading and please review!<strong>


	21. Chapter 21

**Hello! Here is the next chapter. Thank you for all of your kindness and all of your awesome reviews! Please review again, but more importantly, please enjoy this chapter!**

**Thanks for reading!**

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><p>"Jett's a <em>mafia<em> boss?" Logan asked incredulously from the backseat after hearing James' revelation.

"Hey, no talking until you can breathe!" James reprimanded his partner from the front seat. "And yeah, believe it or not, Jett is a mafia boss."

Kendall shook his head disbelievingly. "I never would have seen that one coming," he muttered. "I feel like we're in a movie or something."

"Yeah, we're in a movie where the good guys, that's us by the way, are totally late for Carlos Garcia's hearing and don't have a motive for Jett killing Jennifer Moroe. Go us," James said unenthusiastically, speeding his car a little more when he saw that it was already an hour into Carlos' trial.

"So we know Jett definitely killed Jennifer Moroe," Kendall prompted, trying to figure out the motive. "But why?"

That was the only question left unanswered, the only piece missing in the puzzle. The three men knew that Jett had killed Jennifer because he had admitted it to Kendall and Logan when he left them for dead in the freezer. They also knew that Jett didn't have an alibi for the morning that Jennifer was killed, and had lied to Logan and James regarding his whereabouts at that time.

They knew the Jett was the murderer, but they didn't know why.

"Maybe she threatened to tell Jo that Jett was cheating on her," James offered halfheartedly as he sped along to try to get to Baltimore sooner. They had to make it back before the hearing was over.

"No," Kendall said after thinking about James' theory. Jo told me and Logan that she based her relationship with Jett on trust. Jett would have known that and would have told Jo that Jennifer was lying and she would have believed him."

Logan gasped from the backseat and both Kendall and James turned around in their seats quickly enough to give themselves whiplash as James hastily pulled the car over, both worrying that they friend was having another asthma attack.

"No, keep driving!" Logan yelled. "I'm fine, I'm fine! I think I figured it out!"

James started driving again and let out a shaky breath. "Geez, Logan, what the hell. You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Kendall wiped a hand over his face as Logan's gasp had sent him back to their time in the freezer when Logan had stopped breathing.

"I would apologize," Logan said guiltlessly, "but this is much more important than that. Jo told Kendall and me that she knew Jennifer because she hung out with Jett, only they had a fight and stopped hanging out after he found her going through his things. Jo said she was supposed to have lunch with Jennifer today. Jennifer told her that she wanted to tell Jo something. What if she found out?"

"Found out what?" James questioned as he continued to focus on the road.

"What if she found out that he was in the mafia?" Logan said, excitement glowing in his eyes. "Think about it. She's going out with this guy, goes through his stuff one day and finds evidence that he's involved with the mafia. He catches her and then she wants to meet with Jo to tell her. She found out, and Jett found out that she knew so he killed her!"

James eyes widened as he tried to take all of this information in. "Okay, okay" he said, trying to get his thoughts in order. "Okay, so two weeks ago Jo overhears Jett and Jennifer arguing because he caught her looking through his things, at which time Jennifer had stumbled on something that proved that Jett is involved with the mafia. So she wants to meet with Jo to tell her what she's getting into, Jett somehow finds out, and kills her before she can tell anyone else?"

"Maybe!" Kendall exclaimed excitedly. "What do you think, Logan?"

When no answer came from the backseat, Kendall quickly turned around and saw Logan nodding while rubbing his chest.

"Logan, are you all right?" Kendall asked, his excitement for possibly finding a motive quickly replaced by concern for his friend.

Upon hearing the concern in Kendall's voice, James adjusted the rearview mirror so that he could see Logan while keeping his eyes on the road.

"Yeah," Logan said assuredly. "It's just a bit of tightness. Natural side effect of an asthma attack, I'm all right."

Neither James nor Kendall were completely assured by Logan's excuse, but they needed to get to Carlos Garcia's hearing before it ended and before an innocent man was put in jail. So they continued the rest of the drive in silence only interrupted by Logan's suppressed coughing and the sound of the car's police siren.

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><p>Carlos Garcia watched as his hearing progressed. He had a different prosecutor than he had had last week, but what most troubled him was the fact that Detective Diamond and the other detective who arrested him weren't at his hearing. He thought for sure that James had believed him, but he hadn't even shown up. Carlos was sure that his life was over as it unraveled before his eyes.<p>

The prosecutor brought up witness after witness, all saying something against him. And the worst part was Carlos didn't even know how to respond. He had watched enough crime shows and law dramas to know that there were objections he could be saying and arguments he could be making, but he just didn't know what to say. Everything that the witnesses for the prosecution said was correct, but it was all being spun against him. Everything was out of control.

"_What am I supposed to say_?" he asked himself after hearing one of Jennifer's friends say that he was somewhat of a stalker. "_Objection, Your Honor, but that's not true_?" Carlos was at a loss.

And then Jett Stetson came on the stand and started telling lies. He said that he had seen Carlos Wednesday morning running from Jennifer's apartment with blood all over his clothes, but that wasn't true! He didn't run from Jennifer's apartment, and he definitely didn't have any blood on him. But it was too late now. The jury already had their minds made up, and Carlos couldn't really blame them. Even he, who knew the truth, could have been convinced that he was guilty of murdering Jennifer Moroe.

* * *

><p>It was nearly six o'clock when James, Logan, and Kendall arrived at the courthouse, and they prayed that they weren't too late. They ran into the correct courtroom to find that the jury was about to read off their decision regarding Carlos' guilt.<p>

"Wait!" Kendall yelled before the decision could be read and he ran up to the judge's bench.

"Excuse me!" the judge exclaimed indignantly, her stern expression almost stopping Kendall from making his announcement.

"Please, Your Honor, I'm sorry for interrupting," Kendall said a little breathlessly since he ran to the courtroom. "But this is urgent. You've got the wrong man. Carlos Garcia isn't guilty for the murder of Jennifer Moroe. Jett Stetson is the murderer."

The courtroom buzzed excitedly as the disheveled man before them just laid guilt on one of the witnesses for the prosecution.

James and Logan made their way over to where Jett Stetson was sitting, awaiting the jury's decision. They had to make sure that he wouldn't run away and try to escape, especially after he saw that Logan and Kendall were no longer locked in a freezer. So instead of being able to run away, Jett was forced to stay in his seat and listen to what Kendall had to say.

"Oh?" the stern judge asked scathingly. "And what gives you the right to run into my courtroom and interrupt my hearing? I will hold you in contempt!"

"Please," Kendall pleaded. "You can hold me in contempt, you can arrest me, you can do whatever you want. But please, _please_ let me explain."

Before the judge could give Kendall permission to continue, Kendall began to speak. "My name is Kendall Knight, and I was the original prosecutor assigned to this case. I didn't believe that Carlos Garcia could have killed Jennifer Moroe, so I started looking into the case with the arresting officers, Detectives James Diamond and Logan Mitchell.

"We discovered that Jennifer Moroe had a boyfriend, who we discovered to be Jett Stetson. So we talked to him, thinking that he may be a suspect in her murder. He gave us an alibi which, as it turns out, was false.

"Detective Mitchell and I went back to Mr. Stetson's apartment to question him further. Apparently we asked too many questions, because yesterday Detective Mitchell and I were kidnapped by Mr. Jett Stetson and locked in a large freezer, left to die. And Detective Mitchell almost did.

"While in this freezer, Mr. Stetson admitted to Detective Mitchell and me that he had indeed murdered Jennifer Moroe. Thus, on Detective Mitchell's and my testimonies, we would like to arrest Mr. Jett Stetson for the murder of Jennifer Moroe, the kidnapping and attempted murder of Detective Logan Mitchell and me, hindering a police investigating, perjury, and involvement in organized crime."

When Kendall finished, the courtroom was silent. This dramatic unfolding of events seemed like it should have belonged in a book or a movie, not in real life. The silence, however, was interrupted after a few moments by whispering, the majority of that whispering asking about the charge of involvement in organized crime.

The judge finally interrupted the whispering and the buzzing. "Bailiff," she ordered, "take Mr. Jett Stetson and Mr. Carlos Garcia into custody and contact the Baltimore Police Department. Tell them that we may have a situation on our hands. I am declaring this court proceedings null and void until all of this information can be sorted out and justice can be served. So jury, you are free to go. Mr. Knight, Detectives Mitchell and Diamond, follow me."

And with that, the judge led Kendall, Logan, and James to the judge's quarters.

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><p><strong>Did you like it? I hope that the explanation into Jett's motive made sense...I tried to be as clear as possible, but what may appear clear to me may be completely vague to anyone else. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes out for the next chapters! There are 23 chapters in all so two more left!<strong>


	22. Chapter 22

**I AM SO SORRY! I have been awful with updating as of late, and I am sincerely sorry. Thank you to all who reviewed and all of you who have made it this far in reading the story. This is the second to last chapter, so I hope you enjoy it! I am considering writing a sequel, but no storylines or plots have come to my head yet, so I'm not exactly sure what I am going to do. But anyway, I hope you like this chapter! Please review and enjoy!**

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><p>While in the judge's quarters, James and Kendall explained to the judge what had happened the last week with their investigation into Jennifer Moroe's death. Logan interjected comments and clarifying information here and there, but his chest was still tight and he was having a little trouble breathing again, but had accidently left his now overused inhaler in the car.<p>

"_We won't be here for too much longer_," Logan thought to himself. "_And anyway, I'll sleep it all off tonight and feel good as new by tomorrow_."

After they finished explaining to the judge their story and the judge agreed that a new investigation needed to take place, they made their way to the courtroom again to see the that the Baltimore police had arrived and were bringing Jett into their custody.

"What happened?" Sergeant Rivers asked concerned.

However, before anyone could begin to answer, Jett broke free from the officers who were escorting him out of the courtroom and charged toward the exit. Logan reacted quickly and tried to stop Jett from getting away, only to be tackled into the guardrail that separated the audience seating from the main arena of the courtroom.

The crowd gasped in shock and watched as the man in handcuffs ran out the door and as the young detective remained still on the ground.

"Logan!" James exclaimed and ran to his fallen partner.

Kendall joined him, kneeling by Logan who seemed to be having trouble breathing. "Logan, what happened? Logan!" Kendall shouted.

But Logan didn't respond, and instead, his eyelids closed and he fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>When Logan woke up, all he saw was white. For a split second his groggy and irrational mind thought he was dead and in heaven, but then he saw a brown haired head and a blonde haired head resting on the bed that he was laying in, and he knew he was in the hospital.<p>

The sounds of him waking up and moving must have alerted Kendall and James that he was awake, because suddenly Logan's two friends were leaning over him asking if he was all right.

"What happened?" Logan asked, holding in a wince when he realized how sore his chest was.

"Jett tackled you and it must have knocked the wind out of you," Kendall said.

"The doctor thinks that with the stress your lungs went through earlier and the getting the wind knocked out of you triggered another asthma attack, which is why you're here," James continued.

"So are you all right?" Kendall asked worriedly, guilt shining in his eyes since Logan was hurt.

Logan nodded truthfully. "Yeah, I'm fine," he answered. "A little sore maybe, but I'll be all right. Where's Jett?"

James and Kendall glanced at each other before looking back at Logan. "In all of the confusion he got away."

Logan stared wide-eyed at his friends. "He got away? We have to go after him!" Logan said, and then began to try to get out of his hospital bed.

"No, Logan, you have to stay here," James said and he and Kendall gently pushed Logan down.

"Sorry, Logan," Kendall said, once again feeling guilty, "but the doctor said you need to stay here until you're better again. He said that the water and the cold from the freezer could bring about a respiratory infection and the stress could cause another—"

"Who cares about me?" he yelled and he struggled to vain against James' and Kendall's grips on his shoulders. "We need to stop him! He killed Jennifer Moroe, we can't let him get away!"

"We won't, Logan," James said sincerely. "We won't ever stop looking for him, and no matter how long it takes we'll find him."

"And James called Jo," Kendall added. "She's going to call us if he ever contacts her."

"But we can't let him get away," Logan said, but he stopped struggling and slumped in his bed, staring miserably up at the ceiling.

Kendall and James nodded sympathetically as they let their minds wander to all that had happened in a week.

As they went over their memories and talked quietly about theories and the case, they were suddenly interrupted by James' phone.

Jo was calling.

* * *

><p>"How long do you think he's going to stay there?" Kendall asked as he and James sped through Baltimore on the way to Jett Stetson's apartment.<p>

"I think the better question is how did he get passed all of the policemen who were supposed to watching for him?" James asked, a little frustrated over the other officers' seeming incompetence.

"Who knows," Kendall muttered, feeling just as aggravated.

They arrived at Jett's apartment in record time, with James leading a small army of policemen, and Kendall staying behind until the apartment was considered secure enough for him, a civilian, to enter.

The takedown was fast and effective. The found Jett in his room packing as quickly as possible. However, it wasn't fast enough. Minutes after they got there, Kendall watched as Jett was loaded into a police car. He then went into the apartment.

"We got him," James said smiling, feeling as if the weight of the world was now off his shoulders. "Now it's on you to prove he's guilty."

"No problem," Kendall said, smiling confidently. "But first, I think I may try to comfort the grieving girlfriend." And with that, Kendall walked over to a crying Jo, throwing a wink over his shoulder at James.

James rolled his eyes. "And Logan think _I'm_ girl crazy," he muttered.

He surveyed the apartment and couldn't help but smile. They had done it. Jett Stetson was going to prison, Carlos Garcia would soon be a free man, and everything was back to normal.

James couldn't believe it. In a week, the criminal had become innocent, his partner had become his best friend, his enemy became another friend, the witness became the enemy, and then the enemy became the criminal. Everything had just cycled through and had gone back to normal.

James glanced over and saw Kendall and Jo deep in conversation and decided to give them a little privacy. He walked over to an adjacent room.

"Ah, genuine Italian leather," he said softly to himself, mocking Jett's voice as he walked into the room that he and Logan had originally come to when they first questioned Jett.

And then he saw it. On the beautiful leather was an intricate design. The design was a picture of a blue jay with two elegant cursive initials beside it. "_I knew I saw that tattoo before_!" James thought to himself as he shook his head in amazement.

The initials were hard to discern, but after studying it a bit longer, James thought they were a "J" and a "G," but maybe he was wrong. He then shoved that thought in the back of his head and went to get Kendall so that they could go back to Logan at the hospital to tell him the good news.

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><p><strong>I hope you liked this chapter! I will update either later tonight or tomorrow with the last chapter. Thank you all for reading and for reviewing! Your kind and supportive words have meant so much to me over the past couple weeks!<strong>


	23. Chapter 23

**Hello, faithful readers. So I know I said that I would have this final chapter up earlier, but I was having a bit of trouble wording it as clearly as possible. Well, that's partially true, I guess. The other partial truth is that I REALLY didn't want this story to end. This was my first actual multi-chapter story I've written and finished, so seeing it come to an end is a little sad. But that's okay. Everything comes to an end...I feel like I should have continued that statement with something else inspirational, but I'm tired and I can't think clearly (not that I think clearly when I'm fully awake! :) )**

**So yeah, anyway, this is turning into a super-annoying note, so I'm just going to let you read the chapter. This story is complete, so I hope you enjoyed it! Keep an eye out for more stories in the future! Thank you all so very VERY much for reading and reviewing. It really means a lot so thank you. Now enjoy!**

* * *

><p><em>Two Weeks Later<em>

"I can't believe we got him, and it's all over," Logan said, still trying to convince himself that Jett Stetson was going to prison.

Jett's trial had been sped up and, while there wasn't any evidence to charge Jett with being involved with organized crime, he was still found guilty for all of his other charges and was given life imprisonment.

"I can't believe that Kendall and I don't hate each other," James joked as the three new friends walked out of the courthouse.

"And I can't believe that Jo thought I would take her back right away," Kendall said. When James and Logan looked at him solemnly he laughed, trying to ease their serious expressions. "What?" he asked humorously. "She broke my heart, so I need some time."

"How much time?" Logan asked skeptically. As much as he agreed that Kendall shouldn't agree to date Jo again right away since she hurt him so badly before, he also saw Kendall's face when he looked at her or talked about her, and he knew how much Kendall loved her.

"Maybe a week," Kendall said laughing. "If I can wait that long…"

The three friends laughed and made their way to their favorite diner to get something to eat. Before they got there, though, they ran into someone unexpected.

"Detectives, Mr. Knight," Carlos Garcia said, stopping the three friends on the sidewalk.

"Carlos," Kendall said, surprised to see the man he once stopped from receiving bail.

"Sorry to bother you," he said quickly, "but I just wanted to say thanks again…for everything. If it wasn't for you guys, I probably would be in jail right now and…and Jennifer's killer would never have been brought to justice." When Carlos said Jennifer's name, his eyes filled with tears.

"We were just doing our jobs," Logan said gently. "There's no need to thank us."

"Yeah there is," Carlos said, giving them a small smile. "Thank you."

As he started to walk away, James suddenly called out to him. "Hey, Carlos!" When he turned around James smiled and asked "Are you hungry?"

And with that, the four young men began to forge a friendship that could never be explained, but could never be broken.

* * *

><p>The cold sound of high heels echoed through the prison. The prison guards knew she was coming and were given orders to let her through unhindered. They didn't know who she was, but they knew that they did <em>not<em> want to upset her.

Even though they were leading her to her destination, the attitude and tone that she emitted gave the impression to everyone in the vicinity that _she_ was actually the one who was leading.

"Right in here, ma'am," one of the prison guards said quietly as he showed her to a private room.

The woman didn't thank him as he opened the door for her, but instead walked in briskly and smiled at the man before her.

"Finally, I've been in here for two weeks! What took you so long?" Jett Stetson asked, annoyance but undeniable relief appearing on his face.

"My, Jett, orange is definitely not your color," she said, referring to his new prison apparel.

He rolled his eyes. "Well thank you, I knew I could always count on you for compliments."

The atmosphere of the room suddenly seemed to become darker and grow colder as she glared at the man in front of her.

When the silence became too much, he decided to speak. "I did what the boss ordered me to do. I took the blame for everything, even for the things that I didn't do or plan. So why am I here when it was the boss who ordered me to do all of it?" he asked.

"The boss is Mr. Griffin to you. And you're here because _the boss_ wants you here," she answered simply.

"So…what are we going to do?" Jett asked hesitantly as he tried to think of a polite way to ask the woman in front of him how she was going to get him out of prison.

The woman laughed. "We?" she asked laughing. "_We_ are not going to do anything. I am going to continue with my work and you are going to stay here and keep your mouth shut like a good little boy."

"What? Wait, no! You're just going to leave me here!" Jett exclaimed, panic flowing throughout his body. "Mr. Griffin can't do that! He can't—"

"You're right," the woman interrupted. "Mr. Griffin can't just leave you here."

Jett's body relaxed in relief. "Okay, great, I'm glad we agree. So what are we—"

The woman interrupted Jett again, but with a laugh instead of a statement. "Oh, Jett, I don't think you understand me," she said, her voice lilting as if she were talking to a child. "Mr. Griffin can't leave you here because he's not the boss."

Jett felt as if every one of his body parts and organs had frozen after he heard the woman's most recent revelation. "What?" Jett asked quietly, his mind spinning. "Arthur Griffin isn't the boss of this family? But…no…"

The woman laughed as Jett struggled to find the right words. "No, sweetie," she said smiling patronizingly. "His _daughter_ is the boss, the head of this mafia crime family. Hence the 'JG' initials on the family's symbol."

"So…so she can save me, right!" Jett said excitedly. "Do you know who she is? Can you find her for me, please? I need her help. I can't stay here for too much longer…"

The woman looked concerned for a moment, but it turned out to be fake as she then erupted into laughter. "I don't think so," she said, her eyes shining in excitement and power.

Jett frowned at the woman before him. "Why not?" he asked slowly, unsure of what to expect.

The woman smiled her same malicious smile and got up to leave. "No, please!" Jett yelled. "You can't do this, you can't leave me in here without trying to help, you can't! Jo!"

Upon hearing her name, the woman turned around and smiled. "Yes I can," she answered simply. "And I can also have you praying for Hell to take you if you _ever_ talk to anyone about your experience with the Griffin mafia family. You have outlived your purpose, and it's time to leave you behind. Thank you for your services."

"Jo, please," Jett pleaded, but Jo continued to walk to the door. "Jo, no! JO TAYLOR!" Jett yelled desperately, his heart soaring with hope as he saw Jo stop on her way to the exit.

"Oh, and that's another thing," Jo said. "Since we have such a _strong_ confidentiality agreement, and I _know_ that you will _never_ tell anyone about your experiences at the risk of facing dire situations and consequences, I think you should know that my name isn't Jo Taylor. It's Jo Griffin. And I can do whatever I want."

When she saw that Jett still stared at her with confusion, fear, panic, and betrayal filling his eyes, she continued to speak as she walked away confidently.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with the head of the mafia?"

* * *

><p><strong>Did you like it? Did you expect it? Did you understand it? Hahaha, sorry, I just tried really hard to make the "twist ending" as clear and understandable as possible, but I'm not always good at that so...yeah, I hope you all understood it.<strong>

**Anyway, thank you all so much, SO MUCH, for reading this story and sticking with it through its slow parts and its annoying parts and its unrealistic parts and everything else. Thank you for all of the reviews, especially those of you who have stuck with my story since the beginning. You totally ROCK! Anyway, keep an eye out for new stories by me-I will try to write as much as possible and will try to think of some sequel ideas. THANK YOU AGAIN AND YOU ALL ARE SERIOUSLY THE BEST!**


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